Campus email to targeted list of enrollment-eligible international students
Dear new and returning UMBC international students,
As we prepare for the start of the upcoming fall semester, we wanted to take a moment to share with you a few updates from the International Education Services Office (IES).
The UMBC community greatly values our international students, and we are committed to giving you the best possible experience while enrolled here. In our effort to continue our support of your unique needs, goals, and challenges, we will be expanding our services and resources, while also maintaining immigration compliance as required by law.
This expansion of our services and resources includes the enhancement of some of our most popular offerings, such as orientation events, the International Student Career Conference, and tax and lawyer workshops. We also plan to roll out several new programs, events, and other opportunities for engagement for all international students in the coming weeks and months.
The first step in this process is the launch of our new immigration case management system, known as The IES Portal. The portal will centralize all immigration applications that go through the IES office. Students will be able to create a personal account in the system, allowing them to manage all of their secure documents in a single location online. Other system services include personalized reminders for deadlines, electronic advisor signatures on applications, and much more. You should receive a follow-up email with more detailed information and directions on how to register in the next two weeks.
IES will also be building on its communication efforts to ensure international students receive important information and updates in a timely fashion, both in email and online through the IES website. This also includes greater availability of international advisors through increased walk-in hours and faster response times to phone and email inquiries.
To support our expansion of IES services, we are implementing a nominal international student fee, which will appear on your UMBC fall 2019 student bill. The fee serves to fund programs and resources specifically for international students. For more information about the fee, please visit the IES website.
We wish you all the best during your summer break and look forward to welcoming you to our UMBC community this fall.