Below is information about requesting a certificate of eligibility (Form I-20 or DS-2019) from the Reves Center for a student visa. The Reves Center's goal is to issue the I-20 or DS-2019 within 3 business days of receipt of complete request.
Deadlines
Fall Admits: June 15
Spring Admits: December 5
Summer Admits: April 15
I-20s and DS-2019s
An I-20 or DS-2019 is a document issued by the Reves Center to enable an international student to obtain an F-1 or J-1 student visa.
- I-20s are primarily issued for degree-seeking students.
- DS-2019s are primarily issued for international exchange students, but degree-seeking students can qualify if a substantial portion (at least 33%) of their funding comes from sources other than personal/family funds.
New process: Starting March 2015, I-20s and DS-2019s will be requested and issued through our online system iStart. Here is how it will work:
- The system will email the student to complete an online biographic form and upload a copy of his/her passport identity page and financial documentation.
- Once he/she completes that, the request will be routed electronically to the respective admissions officer or department administrator. The admissions officer/department administrator will confirm the following:
- Date that the student needs to be on-campus (if earlier than the standard arrival date).
- How English proficiency was assessed (i.e. TOEFL score, attended a English speaking high school or university, etc)
- How the I-20 or DS-2019 should be sent (UPS, US airmail, etc)
- If the student will be employed by W&M (e.g. as a graduate assistantship)
- Once the admissions officer/department administrator answers those 4 questions, the request will automatically route to the Reves Center for issuance and mailing of the I-20 or DS-2019.
Summer Admits
Students can arrive in the U.S. up to 30 days before the start date listed on their I-20 or DS-2019. If program activities will begin before this time, we can issue an I-20 or DS-2019 with an earlier start date, as long as the student will be enrolled full time (in at least 6 credits). If you have questions about this, contact our office.
SEVIS Transfer Students
Students already attending a school in the U.S. on an F-1 or J-1 visa may need to have their SEVIS record transferred to us. When we receive the request from the department, we will determine if a SEVIS transfer is needed; if so, we will contact the student.
A top Republican senator is probing the Department of Energy (DOE) after Fox News Digital reported non-binary former senior official Sam Brinton committed a crime while on an official trip last year.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sent a letter late Wednesday to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, asking her various questions about Brinton's employment and her agency's knowledge of Brinton's alleged crimes. Earlier this month, Fox News Digital reported Brinton was traveling on a taxpayer-funded business trip to Nevada at the time of a high-profile baggage theft in July 2022.
"Far from a faithful execution of duties, Sam Brinton used taxpayer dollars to facilitate theft from the very public DOE is bound to serve," Barrasso wrote to Granholm. "Though Brinton is no longer a DOE employee, there are continuing concerns about potential criminality committed during Brinton’s employment at DOE."
"The press has reported on three alleged thefts carried out by Brinton. This criminal activity represents a disturbing pattern of behavior. It is therefore important to discover whether or not Brinton carried out additional thefts while on DOE-sponsored travel," the GOP senator added. "As Sam Brinton’s employer, your department is liable for Brinton’s criminal misconduct committed while on official travel."
"DOE has both a legal and moral obligation to address additional criminal acts carried out at the hands of your senior employee," Sen. John Barrasso, right, wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, left. (Getty Images)
Barrasso requested Granholm provide his committee with Brinton’s official travel itineraries. He also asked the DOE to engage with the Office of the Inspector General to determine the extent of Brinton's crimes on taxpayer-funded trips.
"It is clear DOE has both a legal and moral obligation to address additional criminal acts carried out at the hands of your senior employee," Barrasso continued. "For this reason, I request DOE provide the Committee a list of Brinton’s official travel itineraries."
"Additionally, I request the relevant DOE personnel work with the Inspector General to determine whether or not Brinton committed other criminal acts while on DOE-sponsored travel," he wrote. "By doing so, DOE may help other potential victims of Brinton’s crimes."
In early July 2022, Brinton traveled to the DOE-operated Nevada National Security Site near Las Vegas, according to DOE filings and expense reports obtained by watchdog group Functional Government Initiative and shared with Fox News Digital. Brinton flew on a United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on July 6, 2022.
Months later, in early December, Las Vegas prosecutors charged Brinton with grand larceny of an item valued between $1,200 and $5,000. Police accused Brinton of stealing a suitcase with a total estimated worth of $3,670 at Harry Reid International Airport on July 6, 2022, the same day Brinton traveled to Las Vegas on official DOE business.
Sam Brinton has been charged with multiple airport luggage thefts. Brinton departed the Department of Energy late last year. (Department of Energy | Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
According to the documents, Brinton — who made headlines last year after being appointed to be the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition at the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy as a non-binary gender-fluid person — traveled to the Nevada National Security Site for an unspecified meeting and site visit.
Brinton ultimately escaped jail time in the grand larceny case after pleading no contest to the charges and waiving the right to a trial. Brinton was ordered to pay $3,670.74 to the victim in the case and $500 in additional fees, including a criminal fine. Clark County Judge Ann Zimmerman handed Brinton a 180-day suspended jail sentence, a sentence that does not need to be served, and ordered Brinton to "stay out of trouble."
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Brinton also escaped jail time in a separate case involving the theft of a baggage worth a total of $2,325 from the luggage carousel at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on Sept. 16.
And Brinton was arrested in May in relation to yet another baggage theft, this time stemming from a 2018 incident at the Washington, D.C.-area Reagan National Airport.
The DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The Kota district administration on Thursday ordered all hostels and paying guest (PG) accommodations to install spring-loaded fans in all rooms “to provide students mental support and security”, a move that comes as a response to a string of 21 suicides that have rocked the country’s coaching hub and prompted calls for urgent reforms in the Rajasthan town.
The order, issued by Kota district collector Om Prakash Bunkar, said, “To provide mental support and security to the students studying/living in them and to prevent suicides from increasing among coaching students in Kota city, all hostel/PG operators in the state are directed to install a security spring device in the fans at every room, as discussed in Saturday’s meeting.”
In the meeting on Saturday, the district administration also urged owners of coaching institutes, hostels and PGs to abide with an order issued in December 2022 that mandated a weekly off for students, a maximum class-strength of 80, as well as mandatory psychological evaluations for students and teachers.
Accommodations and institutions that don’t comply with the order will be “seized and the necessary action taken against the owners,” added the notice.
Springs in these ceiling fans are designed to uncoil the moment it detects a load, effectively detaching the fan from the ceiling, and preventing hangings. The fans will also have installed sensors that sound an alarm in the event of an attempted suicide.
Officials said some institutes already have the systems installed and that a similar plan was also floated in 2017.
Experts, however, flayed the order, called it dehumanising and warned such a move will only increase the stigmatisation of students already grappling with fragile mental health.
The notice move comes two days after an 18-year-old student, who was preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), died by suicide in Kota. Tuesday’s suicide was the fourth such death in the district this month and the 21st this year – the highest in eight years.
On August 11, a 17-year-old JEE aspirant from Bihar died by suicide in a hostel in Mahaveer Nagar. On August 4, a 17-year-old engineering aspirant from Bihar died by suicide in Mahaveer Nagar. A day earlier on August 3, a NEET aspirant from Uttar Pradesh allegedly died by suicide in Vigyan Nagar. Police said both (last two) the deceased had arrived in Kota four months ago.
According to police data, 15 students died by suicide in Kota in 2022, 18 in 2019, 20 in 2018, seven in 2017, 17 in 2016, and 18 in 2015. No suicide took place in 2020 and 2021.
Around 225,000 students study for entrance exams in Kota, the nerve centre of India’s lucrative and cash-rice test-prep business. Students from across the country swarm to the tiny Rajasthan town every year, attend classes in cramped classrooms and spend months cooped up in tiny rooms, with the hope of securing a rare spot in one of India’s premier engineering or medical schools.
Indeed, most of the 21 suicides this year have been among students who were preparing for either the JEE or National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
In 2018, a study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) found several students in the town depressed, ill, anxious, and unable to deal with the relentless pressures of coaching.
The same report also found rampant instances of self-harm, substance abuse and bullying.
Reuters
Russia may annex Georgian breakaway regions -Medvedev
"The idea of joining Russia is still popular in Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Medvedev, a former Russian president, wrote in an article published early on Wednesday by Argumenty I Fakty newspaper. "It could quite possibly be implemented if there are good reasons for that," said Medvedev, who has cast himself as one of Russia's most hawkish political voices since its forces invaded Ukraine starting in February 2022.
A top Republican senator is probing the Department of Energy (DOE) after Fox News Digital reported non-binary former senior official Sam Brinton committed a crime while on an official trip last year.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sent a letter late Wednesday to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, asking her various questions about Brinton's employment and her agency's knowledge of Brinton's alleged crimes. Earlier this month, Fox News Digital reported Brinton was traveling on a taxpayer-funded business trip to Nevada at the time of a high-profile baggage theft in July 2022.
"Far from a faithful execution of duties, Sam Brinton used taxpayer dollars to facilitate theft from the very public DOE is bound to serve," Barrasso wrote to Granholm. "Though Brinton is no longer a DOE employee, there are continuing concerns about potential criminality committed during Brinton’s employment at DOE."
"The press has reported on three alleged thefts carried out by Brinton. This criminal activity represents a disturbing pattern of behavior. It is therefore important to discover whether or not Brinton carried out additional thefts while on DOE-sponsored travel," the GOP senator added. "As Sam Brinton’s employer, your department is liable for Brinton’s criminal misconduct committed while on official travel."
Barrasso requested Granholm provide his committee with Brinton’s official travel itineraries. He also asked the DOE to engage with the Office of the Inspector General to determine the extent of Brinton's crimes on taxpayer-funded trips.
"It is clear DOE has both a legal and moral obligation to address additional criminal acts carried out at the hands of your senior employee," Barrasso continued. "For this reason, I request DOE provide the Committee a list of Brinton’s official travel itineraries."
"Additionally, I request the relevant DOE personnel work with the Inspector General to determine whether or not Brinton committed other criminal acts while on DOE-sponsored travel," he wrote. "By doing so, DOE may help other potential victims of Brinton’s crimes."
In early July 2022, Brinton traveled to the DOE-operated Nevada National Security Site near Las Vegas, according to DOE filings and expense reports obtained by watchdog group Functional Government Initiative and shared with Fox News Digital. Brinton flew on a United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on July 6, 2022.
Months later, in early December, Las Vegas prosecutors charged Brinton with grand larceny of an item valued between $1,200 and $5,000. Police accused Brinton of stealing a suitcase with a total estimated worth of $3,670 at Harry Reid International Airport on July 6, 2022, the same day Brinton traveled to Las Vegas on official DOE business.
According to the documents, Brinton — who made headlines last year after being appointed to be the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition at the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy as a non-binary gender-fluid person — traveled to the Nevada National Security Site for an unspecified meeting and site visit.
Brinton ultimately escaped jail time in the grand larceny case after pleading no contest to the charges and waiving the right to a trial. Brinton was ordered to pay $3,670.74 to the victim in the case and $500 in additional fees, including a criminal fine. Clark County Judge Ann Zimmerman handed Brinton a 180-day suspended jail sentence, a sentence that does not need to be served, and ordered Brinton to "stay out of trouble."
Brinton also escaped jail time in a separate case involving the theft of a baggage worth a total of $2,325 from the luggage carousel at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on Sept. 16.
And Brinton was arrested in May in relation to yet another baggage theft, this time stemming from a 2018 incident at the Washington, D.C.-area Reagan National Airport.
The DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Kota district administration on Thursday ordered all hostels and paying guest (PG) accommodations to install spring-loaded fans in all rooms “to provide students mental support and security”, a move that comes as a response to a string of 21 suicides that have rocked the country’s coaching hub and prompted calls for urgent reforms in the Rajasthan town.
The order, issued by Kota district collector Om Prakash Bunkar, said, “To provide mental support and security to the students studying/living in them and to prevent suicides from increasing among coaching students in Kota city, all hostel/PG operators in the state are directed to install a security spring device in the fans at every room, as discussed in Saturday’s meeting.”
In the meeting on Saturday, the district administration also urged owners of coaching institutes, hostels and PGs to abide with an order issued in December 2022 that mandated a weekly off for students, a maximum class-strength of 80, as well as mandatory psychological evaluations for students and teachers.
Accommodations and institutions that don’t comply with the order will be “seized and the necessary action taken against the owners,” added the notice.
Springs in these ceiling fans are designed to uncoil the moment it detects a load, effectively detaching the fan from the ceiling, and preventing hangings. The fans will also have installed sensors that sound an alarm in the event of an attempted suicide.
Officials said some institutes already have the systems installed and that a similar plan was also floated in 2017.
Experts, however, flayed the order, called it dehumanising and warned such a move will only increase the stigmatisation of students already grappling with fragile mental health.
The notice move comes two days after an 18-year-old student, who was preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), died by suicide in Kota. Tuesday’s suicide was the fourth such death in the district this month and the 21st this year – the highest in eight years.
On August 11, a 17-year-old JEE aspirant from Bihar died by suicide in a hostel in Mahaveer Nagar. On August 4, a 17-year-old engineering aspirant from Bihar died by suicide in Mahaveer Nagar. A day earlier on August 3, a NEET aspirant from Uttar Pradesh allegedly died by suicide in Vigyan Nagar. Police said both (last two) the deceased had arrived in Kota four months ago.
According to police data, 15 students died by suicide in Kota in 2022, 18 in 2019, 20 in 2018, seven in 2017, 17 in 2016, and 18 in 2015. No suicide took place in 2020 and 2021.
Around 225,000 students study for entrance exams in Kota, the nerve centre of India’s lucrative and cash-rice test-prep business. Students from across the country swarm to the tiny Rajasthan town every year, attend classes in cramped classrooms and spend months cooped up in tiny rooms, with the hope of securing a rare spot in one of India’s premier engineering or medical schools.
Indeed, most of the 21 suicides this year have been among students who were preparing for either the JEE or National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
In 2018, a study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) found several students in the town depressed, ill, anxious, and unable to deal with the relentless pressures of coaching.
The same report also found rampant instances of self-harm, substance abuse and bullying.
