Welcome to the University of Pennsylvania and the United States.
This page provides information to those who are entering the US with a visa and primarily those with a J-1 visa.
This does not cover how to apply for or obtain a visa. For more information about obtaining a visa, please visit the International Student & Scholar Services website.
You may not enter the country more than 30 days prior to the start date listed on the DS-2019.
You must arrive within 14 days of the date listed on the DS-2019.
If you are going to arrive later than 14 days after your start date, please notify Tami Wilson ASAP.
Upon Arrival:
- Complete the tutorial in iPenn (If you haven’t already).
- Complete the arrival form in iPenn.
- Email Tami Wilson to let her know you have arrived safely.
- Navigate to your final destination and put your bags down, and then take a moment to relax. You are officially here at Penn!
- ISSS will be in touch with you to complete the virtual check-in process.
- You will receive an email from the Penn Onboarding Center with your new PennID number (8-digits) and next steps to complete your onboarding.
- You will also receive two emails from pennkey@isc.upenn.edu with important information needed to access Penn systems:
- One will be entitled “Important information from PENN”, which will contain your temporary SS number (this is for navigating Penn systems only).
- The other will be entitled “Important Information on setting up your pennkey username and password’ which will have your pennkey setup code and penn ID. Follow the five steps provided in this mail. For step 3, use the SSN that was provided in the previous email. More information can be found on the main onboarding page.
- Make an appointment with ISSS within 30 days to discuss your specific visa, including questions about the process when you leave the country, any visa restrictions or untypical situations of which you need to be aware.
- When it comes time to renew your visa, your appointment needs to be renewed first. You will receive a notification from ISSS 90 days (180 days if you have an H1B) prior to its expiration. Department admin receives the same notification and will reach out to your PI to start the reappointment process.
- Note that some international scholars will add a calendar notification to let them know when their DS2019 expires in 90 days.
- Do not worry about the “Urgent” nature of the expiration emails until it’s 30 days to expiration and you have not yet been reappointed. If this occurs, please reach out to Marissa Lopez and Tami Wilson.
- Now you can return to the Postdoctoral Onboarding Page!
