INITIAL ALERTWebsite
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from extended verbatim and paraphrased quotation in USC Annenberg Media's April 7, 2025 coverage; substance, three-category framework, and resource references (OIS, USC Immigration Clinic, Emergency Arrest Hotline (213) 740-7435) confirmed across multiple independent sources1775 chars
Information on Targeted SEVIS Record Closures
The Office of International Services (OIS) is aware that some international students across the United States have recently had their visas revoked and their SEVIS records terminated. Based on reporting and our review of the publicly available information, these revocations and terminations appear to be occurring as a result of: (1) political activity related to the Israel/Gaza conflict; (2) past law enforcement issues — for example, arrests or convictions for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, domestic violence, or other unlawful acts; and/or (3) prior visa infractions.
The University is not routinely informed by the government when a student's visa is revoked or their SEVIS record is terminated. If you receive any notification of a visa revocation or SEVIS record termination from the Department of State, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, please contact OIS immediately at ois@usc.edu.
A SEVIS record termination is a serious immigration matter that may affect your ability to remain in the United States, to continue your studies, and to maintain employment authorization (including OPT and STEM OPT). We strongly recommend that any student who receives such a notice consult with an immigration attorney before taking any action. The USC Immigration Clinic's Immigrant Legal Assistance Center can provide confidential legal consultations. The USC Immigration Clinic's Emergency Arrest Hotline can be reached at (213) 740-7435.
OIS will continue to monitor the situation and will update this notice as new information becomes available. We strongly encourage all international students to avoid nonessential international travel until further notice.
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
The three-category framework ('political activity,' 'past law enforcement issues,' 'prior visa infractions') is OIS's attempt to give students a way to assess their own risk profile — a notable institutional choice given that DHS itself had not published the criteria it was using
Inclusion of the (213) 740-7435 USC Immigration Clinic Emergency Arrest Hotline number on a SEVIS notice is striking: USC anticipated that some students might experience not just record terminations but physical ICE encounters, and front-loaded the arrest-response resource
The direct statement that 'the University is not routinely informed by the government' is unusually candid; most peer institutions hedged this point or addressed it only in internal communications, but USC put it on a publicly indexed page where students and parents could read it
The instruction to 'avoid nonessential international travel until further notice' is broader than the country-specific advisories of late 2024 — by April 2025, the threat was no longer hypothetical, and USC's advice extended to all international students regardless of country of citizenship