The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) went offline from 8:00 p.m. EDT Monday until 4:00 a.m. Tuesday for the version 6.89.1 software release—just hours before DHS’s fixed-term admission rule took effect. Batch users experienced an even longer blackout, beginning at 6:30 p.m., and the SEVP Portal for students was also unavailable. The timing forced Designated School Officials (DSOs) to finalize thousands of I-20 amendments and program-date corrections before the maintenance window, or risk non-compliance once Duration-of-Status (D/S) admissions vanished at midnight. Institutions with West-Coast campuses effectively had to complete updates by mid-afternoon. Several universities reported that automated tuition-payment data pushes failed, requiring manual record reconciliation this morning. Release 6.89.1 adds new warning flags when a student’s Admit-Until Date is in the past and expands audit lists for exchange-visitor extensions—a nod to the new fixed-term framework. DSOs say the enhancements are welcome but worry that the compressed rollout left little time for testing at the busiest point in the academic calendar. For employers, the outage may delay STEM-OPT validation reports and CPT authorizations submitted Monday evening. HR teams expecting updated I-20s for E-Verify reverification should allow additional processing time and be prepared to annotate Form I-9 with explanatory notes referencing the SEVIS downtime. SEVP acknowledged the disruption but said an overnight window was the only option to deploy code changes needed to support the new admission model. Future releases may shift to mid-semester to reduce pressure on schools and sponsors.
Source: Study in the States (DHS)
