HOURS & SERVICES

Upcoming ISS schedule changes:

January 8: Office closed until noon for staff development
January 16: Drop-in advising 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
January 17: No drop-in advising, all new students are invited to join us for the International Student Welcome and Information Fair (ISWIF)
January 20: UW closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (MLK Day)

Thank you for contacting ISS! We are happy to serve over 7,000 international (F and J visa) students on campus and over 1,000 working on post-completion employment authorization throughout the U.S.

To best serve our students, please choose only one method of communication with ISS. Please do not send multiple Terra Dotta information requests or call multiple staff members with the same question or request. This will prevent delays and confusion when we respond to your inquiry.

How to access virtual advising services:

Send a Terra Dotta Information Request to your assigned ISS advisor- Don’t know how? View our tutorial!
Join Hybrid drop-in advising Monday, Tuesday, Friday via Zoom or in-person!
Call our student peer advisors with questions about how to navigate Terra Dotta, campus support resources, and general non-immigration advice.

NOTE: All ISS staff will be working on immigration document requests. Staff are doing their best to timely and accurately process all requests. Some requests may be over 15 business days. Questions about the status of your request seriously delays our processing time. If your request is “Submitted – Under Review by Assigned Advisor”, it is being reviewed!

Monday – Friday: 8:30 a.m.–4 p.m.

All immigration requests can be submitted online through Terra Dotta. Your assigned ISS advisor can be contacted through Terra Dotta information requests.

Hybrid (Virtual or In-person) drop-in advising hours:

Mondays & Tuesdays: 2–4 p.m.
Fridays: 10 a.m.–12 p.m.

We will try our best to meet with all students who attend drop-in hours. Drop-in advising is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Coming to the office in-person will not result in meeting with an advisor sooner If there is a “long line” of students ahead of you, you may need to wait for some time. If you have issues using QLess (our new software), please call the front desk for assistance: (608) 262-2044.

Click here to join any session for drop-in advising

Tips for Participating in Drop-In Advising:

Students must have a phone that allows text messages. If you do not have a phone with texting ability, please come to ISS or call our front desk to have a front desk assist you with singing up.
If advisors are already talking with other students, you may need to wait. There could also be other students waiting “in line” for advising. We will do our best to keep these sessions short (5-10 minutes). Please help us out with this by scheduling an appointment in Terra Dotta if you have lots of questions or a complicated situation that may need more time.
The first hour of drop-in advising is usually the busiest.
Online students:
- A good internet connection is important for Zoom to work well. Disabling your video sharing can help some, and is not usually necessary.
- While Zoom allows for videoconferencing, you are not required to use a camera to show video of yourself. You do need the following attached to your computer or mobile device:
  - A microphone
  - Speakers
  - Your Zoom name matches your legal or preferred name in Terra Dotta

Advising appointments are now scheduled through QLess for appointments on 01/13/2025 and beyond!

All International Student Services (ISS) advising services will be using the QLess system (link to: https://univ-of-wisconsin-madison.app.qless.com/kiosk/3028d1bd-6946-4388-b7fb-9c2e3253f2ac).

To make an appointment:

Click this link and select “Get started”
Select visa type and appointment (Example: F-1 students making an appointment select “F visa appointments)

* If you want to discuss multiple topics, pick one and put other information in the ‘Additional Comments’ section when signing up to give advisors more information.

Select “Virtual” (All appointments are virtual except for Correction of Status and Change of Status to F or J visa. Those 2 types may choose onsite or virtual)
For an appointment, select “Book appointment”
Select your assigned ISS Advisor
Select time and date

You will receive email confirmation and reminders before your appointment with a link to the Zoom meeting room. If you no longer need your appointment, please got to your confirmation email and cancel.

If your appointment is in-person, check in with the front desk when you arrive at ISS. They will notify the ISS Staff you are there.

Call our student peer advisors with questions about how to navigate Terra Dotta, campus support resources, and general non-immigration advise.

Phone:

Our phone line is monitored by our student peer advising staff. No immigration advising is provided. Our peer advisors can provide you with the resources to find what you are looking for and answer questions about how to navigate your Terra Dotta portal.

We strive to provide phone service Monday – Friday from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. CT.

ISS Phone: (608)-262-2044

Email:

Students should send a Terra Dotta Information Request to their assigned ISS advisor instead of sending an email! Do not send your email or Information Request to multiple ISS advisors, please! This takes a lot of staff time away from advising and I-20/DS-2019 requests.

Before you email, please check our website for your answers. You can find answers to your common questions by using the search bar!

Include in your email to iss@iss.wisc.edu:

full legal name
NetID
Student ID number
A detailed question about your immigration status and information about your situation

Student Organizations/Campus/Community Partners requesting event promotion, please contact email: issprograms@iss.wisc.edu

You can contact your advisor through Terra Dotta information requests. Information requests are a replacement to email so that all communication and immigration information is in one place.

Advisors and student peer advisors monitor Information Requests every weekday and typically respond in 3-5 business days. Complex cases require additional time to research before a response is sent. We work as a team to answer your information requests, even if your assigned advisor is out of the office.

We request that you not send a message to check the status of your request. Once you submit a request in Terra Dotta, you can check the status yourself. Sending messages to check in will cause delays.

It should say “Submitted – Under Review by Assigned Advisor” if an advisor is still working on it.
It will say “Request Approved” or SEVIS-Processed” if the request is completed.

Any request or application you submit to ISS may take up to 15 business days to process. ISS business days are Monday–Friday, except for holidays and office closures. We are not able to accommodate requests to expedite your application, but ISS is aware of upcoming deadlines for the university and for students. Your request will be processed in the order that it is received and assigned to an available advisor.

Applications must be complete for ISS to review and process requests. If you submit an incomplete application to ISS, we will be unable to process your application. In this case, we will return your application to you to edit and you will be asked to resubmit a completed application. Your application will take up to 15 business days to process after it has been resubmitted to ISS and assigned to an available advisor.

If you have an application processing with ISS continue to monitor your Wiscmail account (or personal email if you are on post-completion OPT or Academic Training) for status updates. We will always email you when there is an update on your application.