​Contributor: Chase Harvey
Affiliation: Georgia Institute of Technology
Topic: EAD card errors and Potomac Service Center
 
 
As many of you already know, USCIS has been failing to update SEVIS with application status and actual OPT approval dates. In some cases students have been approved for OPT for weeks but their SEVIS record is never updated. This presents a variety of issues for both students and their DSOs. To resolve this, DSOs needed to submit a correction request through SEVIS RTI in order to amend the application status and dates. After working on one such case, I received a survey from USCIS asking for my feedback on the correction request process. 
 
In the survey I went into detail regarding USCIS’s failure to process EADs properly and the ramifications for students and DSOs. I just received a helpful call back from the Ombudsman’s office regarding the feedback I gave in the survey. Noteworthy points below: 
1.SEVP is working with USCIS to resolve these issues 
2.The Potomac Service Center has had a large number of errors with processing EADs and similarly has been failing to update SEVIS properly with approvals and dates
3.In December, SEVP is hoping to release a feature to allow the direct upload of EADs into SEVIS at the time of submitting a correction request
a.This may reduce the volume of follow up documentation requests and response time
4.Students and DSOs may not have to send EAD cards back to USCIS for correction
 
In the meantime, be sure to review the link here for information regarding Potomac Service Center errors. Completing surveys does help! Make sure to give feedback when the opportunity arises.