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The Knowledgebase

ISSS Scholar: Import J-1 Scholars

Overview

This article describes how to import J-1 scholars from a scraped SEVIS list, so that the scholar profile displays, and making it possible for scholars to log in and submit requests to the ISSS office.

During the initial implementation of Terra Dotta ISSS, your implementation specialist will guide you through the process of scraping Initial and Active EV lists from SEVIS. This will pull SEVIS information into your Terra Dotta ISSS database. At this point (or if you already have J-1 scholars managed in Terra Dotta and are implementing only the new Scholar functionality), you are ready to pull your J-1 scholars into the Scholar Admin.

Important: The recommended best practice is to import a scholar or scholars and then continue to manage their profiles from within Terra Dotta ISSS: Scholar. This process is not intended to be executed multiple times. Most often, this process will be completed just once, during your implementation of Terra Dotta ISSS.

 

 

Import J-1 Scholars

To begin, navigate to the top left menu of the Scholar Admin > Configurations > Site Settings > Import Data > Import J-1 Scholars; then select the EV category you wish to import.

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A list of scholars in that category will display. You can search for a particular user, or select Some/All by clicking the box next to each scholar, or the select all box at the top. After selecting your scholars, click Create Scholar. To the right of the Create J-1 Scholar button is the option to cancel and re-import. Clicking this button will take you back to the Import Data page. 

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A window labeled Hiring Authority Details will display. Assign a department and departmental contact information. A Hiring Department MUST be selected prior to the Scholar import or the import will fail.
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After making your selections, click Submit. The data transfer will take time. The recommended practice is to import scholars in groups of 50 or less. After the import is complete, a completion message will display.

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The scholar's name will now link to their profile. Their profile will display on the Pending tab if their SEVIS record is in Initial status, or the Active tab if the SEVIS record is in Active status. The profile/s will also be visible to the appropriate department and departmental admin dashboard.

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At present, the records created are "shell" records only for the scholar to have access to the Requests tab and for ISSS admin to begin managing records from Terra Dotta ISSS: Scholar. The recommended practice is to manage the scholar record from this point directly in the Scholar Admin, or in the SEVIS Profile.