Hosting a Visitor

Departments and faculty members are the starting point in the process to host a visiting student, collaborator, or researcher. The Center for Education Abroad (CEA) facilitates the internal process and external communication with the prospective visitor.

During this process, departments will communicate primarily with representatives from:

For questions, please contact URVisitor@rochester.edu.

Timeline

For international visitors, it can take six months—sometimes longer—to formally complete the pre-arrival process. Because of the multiple University and government offices involved, we recommend you begin the Global Visitor Program as early as possible. For domestic visitors, the process averages one to three months.

For Rochester Department Heads

As head of the hosting department, you must review and approve/deny Global Visitor Proposals, which are proposals from faculty members within your department to host visiting students/visiting researchers or faculty.

  1. Once you receive a completed Global Visitor Proposal from the Center for Education Abroad (CEA), review the details of the visiting candidate’s planned placement, paying particular attention to financial responsibility, timeframe, and activities.
    1. NOTE: Should the visitor complete their stay at Rochester with any outstanding fees, it is your department’s responsibility to cover those fees.
  2. If you are in favor and approve, send an email saying so to the faculty member and to the Center for Education Abroad within one week of receiving the Global Visitor Proposal Form.

Questions or concerns? Contact us at URvisitor@rochester.edu. 

How do I host an international visiting student?

Throughout the global visitor process, you must complete a series of forms in order to prepare the paperwork for your visitor’s arrival.

To host an international visiting student, complete all of the steps in the following checklist.

1. Complete Global Visitor Proposal

Simply propose a placement for a visitor by filling out the Visiting Student/Scholar Host Proposal Form. Do not issue a letter of invitation at this time. CEA will provide departments with assistance in issuing a letter later in the process.

If your visitor needs an early invitation letter in order to secure funding, please email URVisitor@rochester.edu to get this process started.  

CEA submits your completed form to your department head. Once your department head approves the Global Visitor Proposal and the student completes the online application, CEA determines which placement category your candidate falls into: visiting student or visiting scholar.

NOTE: School of Medicine and Dentistry departments must have GEPA approval prior to department head approval. CEA will assist in facilitating GEPA approval.

2. Complete the New Student Intake Form (NSIF)

After visiting student completes their portion of the NSIF, the department will be prompted to update the visiting student’s program study details in UR Compass. Detailed information about the department’s role, required information, and gaining access to UR Compass can be found on the International Services Office website.

See the Checklist for Departmental NSIF Processing (PDF) for more information about the NSIF process.  

Questions about the NSIF? Contact the International Services Office (ISO).

3. Offer Letter and Intellectual Property Agreement

CEA will draft the offer letter for the visiting student and will email the letter and required Intellectual Property Agreement (IPA) to you for review and signature. Ask the visitor to sign the letter and the IPA and return it to CEA.

Once the offer letter, IPA, and English proficiency are received, ISO will begin processing the immigration documents. CEA will request a student record be created in UR Student, from your school’s registrar.

You will receive communication from ISO once the primary immigration document needed for the candidate to obtain their visa is issued. It is then the responsibility of the visiting student to obtain the visa. 

If the student is here for eight weeks or longer the department must complete the necessary requirements through University Health Services (UHS) Connect.

CEA will send the visitor information about housing, transportation, health insurance, and more.

4. Visitor Arrives!

The visitor will need to check in with ISO upon arrival. The department must complete the appropriate forms to register the visitor as a non-matriculated full-time visiting student as soon as possible. All visiting students are required to be registered. This will allow the visitor to properly set up their Net ID and obtain Blackboard access.

It is the responsibility of the department to help the visitor with obtaining the appropriate UR permissions and access, including the facilitation of ID cards.

NOTE: Obtaining an ID card for a visitor in the Medical Center may be different from obtaining an ID card on the River Campus. If your visitor is in the Medical Center, contact the registrar for further instruction. 

Important Notes for Faculty

As the hosting faculty, you are the visiting student, collaborators, or researchers’ supervisor and primary point of contact with the University from an academic, research, support, and supervisory standpoint. Additionally, should the student complete their stay at UR with any outstanding fees, it is your department’s responsibility to cover those fees.

If the duration of the visiting student, collaborator, or researchers’ time at UR changes—either shortens or lengthens—you should inform your department head/dean for approval as soon as possible, and then notify ISO and CEA. This can have immigration implications as well as issues with the bursar and registrar offices, and CEA will facilitate as needed.