Supporting Our International Community
Studying, working, and living across borders comes with unique challenges. Global Cornell supports and stands with our international and immigrant community.
Leadership and staff are working diligently to understand changes in federal policy and how they impact Cornell's students, faculty, and staff and higher education nationwide. We're committed to ensuring that all Cornellians are welcomed, supported, and empowered to succeed.
Global Cornell provides expert immigration advice, campus resources and emergency support, border-crossing connections, and advocacy at the institutional, state, and federal levels. This page highlights ways we support the vibrant global community at Cornell.
Immigration Guidance
Information on Executive Orders
Visit Cornell's Information on Executive Orders website for guidance and resources on how new executive orders, federal agency directives, and policy announcements may impact Cornell's missions of research, teaching, public engagement, and supporting our diverse community.
The site is updated regularly.
Information on Executive Orders
Guidance for the International Community
The Office of Global Learning's International Services site provides guidance on executive orders and important policy changes with a direct effect on Cornell's international community.
Immigration Resources
Visit Global Cornell's resources page to find answers, advice, and allies for our international community, including immigration-related campus resources, emergency aid, and more.
Undocumented and DACA
Access Essential Resources
Undocumented and DACA Student Support offers a supportive community, mentoring, and resources to help undocumented students succeed and maintain financial sustainability, food security, stable housing, and wellness.
Immigration Legal Assistance
Free Consultation with Miller Mayer
Cornell has engaged Miller Mayer immigration attorneys to provide confidential consultations for Cornell students, faculty, and staff who wish to discuss immigration issues. Learn about this new resource (NetID required).
Local Legal Resources
These Ithaca-area legal resources provide a range of options for international and immigrant community members with legal questions.
International Services: Advising and Resources
International Services
Part of the Office of Global Learning, the International Services team advises Cornell's international students and scholars on visas and employment, settling into Ithaca, travel, campus resources, and more.
Website Sampler
The comprehensive International Services website provides tailored information to help students, faculty, and staff from 131 countries maintain their legal status and thrive at Cornell. Here is a sampling of what is available on the site:
- Getting Started: Enter the U.S. | Status Activation for Students | Visa Basics | Status Activation for Scholars
- Travel: Travel Documents for Students | Travel on OPT | Travel Documents for Scholars
- Maintaining Your Status: Status advice by visa type | Degree Change | J-1 Physical Presence
- Employment and Taxes: Apply for an SSN | F-1 CPT | F-1 OPT | U.S. Income Tax Basics
International Student Orientations
Graduate Orientation
Offered twice annually, international graduate and professional student orientation introduces campus resources and helps students connect with classmates from around the world.
Prepare for Undergraduates
Prepare is the fall preorientation program for international undergraduates, where first-year and transfer students make friends, adjust to U.S. culture, and get a head start on campus life.
Cornell-sponsored Visas and Beyond
Your Visa and Your Visa Status
Your visa is the entry stamp in your passport that allows you to enter the United States. Common student visa statuses are F-1 and J-1. The most common statuses for Cornell faculty and staff are J-1 and H-1B.
Visas After Graduation
Many international students hope to work in the U.S. after they graduate. Offered once each semester, Visas After Graduation gives an overview of work authorization options. Attend the presentation or watch a recent video.
Protests and Your Rights
Do you feel passionate about a cause and want to get involved? Protests and Your Rights provides guidance on international visitors' rights and risks.
File Federal Taxes with Sprintax
Free Tax Software for Internationals
Cornell teams up with Sprintax to provide easy-to-use tax preparation software designed for nonresident students, scholars, alumni, and dependents. Annual Sprintax information sessions support Cornell users.
Community Support
Support for Times of Crisis
Resources for Students, Faculty, and Staff
Cornell is a global community. Natural disasters, political conflicts, and violence happening around the world can profoundly affect our campus. Cornell offers support services to help the community cope with turbulent times.
Health and Well-being
Student Health Resources
Cornell Health offers information and resources especially for international students. Learn about health care in the United States and Cornell Health services and counseling support.
For J-1 Exchange Visitors
Faculty and staff on J-1 visas must be covered by health and accident insurance during the entire length of their stay. Review U.S. health insurance basics and find out where to find insurance that meets J-1 coverage requirements.
Play Outside: Recreation and Stress Relief
Cornell Outdoor Education is the nation's largest collegiate outdoor education program, offering adventure trips, rock climbing, PE classes, gear rental, and more.
Emergency Help
Financial Emergency
Limited funding support may be available to international students experiencing a health care or family emergency. Email the Office of Global Learning for more information. Eligible expenses:
- International travel expenses due to serious illness or death in the immediate family
- Emergency medical expenses not covered by insurance
- Essential and emergency dental work
Immigration Emergency
If you are a current student, faculty, or staff member experiencing an immigration-related emergency, find out how to get the help you need at any hour.
Advocacy
A Community of Belonging
Cornell Stands Against Hatred and Bias
Cornell has a set of core values rooted in our history and created through extensive discussions with people from all parts of the community. Among these core values is Cornell's commitment to being a community of belonging.
“Our campuses are home to tens of thousands of people with diverse lived experiences, strong convictions, and differing viewpoints. This diversity is a source of our strength but also brings with it a shared responsibility to listen to and learn from one another.”
From Interim President Michael Kotlikoff's August 2024 statement.
Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds
Bringing Your Whole Self
Belonging at Cornell works to make campus a more diverse, interconnected, and supportive environment.
“At Cornell we don’t simply want you to fit in with what we are already doing—we want you to expand our horizons, blaze new trails, pursue new knowledge, and share all of what you have to offer with all of us.”
Ethical International Engagement
Cornell is committed to global engagement and supports open, international collaboration.
Cornell adopted guidelines for ethical international engagement in 2019 to strengthen relationships and collaborations overseas.
Discussing Difficult Topics
Community Agreements and Classroom Resources
Explore the resources Cornell offers to help foster an environment of understanding on campus. The university has compiled guides to support effective tactics for talking respectfully across differences and advice on responding to incidents that affect the teaching and learning climate.
Teaching International Students
Cornell international students and their faculty can face unique learning challenges. These instructional tips help faculty plan ways to give all students equal opportunities to participate, contribute, and learn.
Connections and Opportunities
Happenings
Cornell's global community finds many opportunities to come together. Check out events hosted by International Services and our friends across campus.
International Coffee Hours
Join International Services for casual meet-and-greet coffee hours—now offered for current international employees and current graduate and professional students.
Hosted by International Services
Select Recent Events
- (Mar. 2025) Steven Levitsky (Harvard, A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell) delivered a keynote, The Crisis (and Resilience) of Global Democracy.
- (Jan. 2025) Craft and Learn: Chinese Guardian Figures let attendees learn about the Johnson Museum of Art's connections to China and create their own guardian figures from clay.
- (Dec. 2024) Read Interim President Michael Kotlikoff's December 2024 Recognition Ceremony address in Chinese, Hindi, Korean, and Spanish.
Moments of Delight
Moments of delight and caring bring a smile to your face and bind us together.
Valentine's Day Celebration
On Valentine's Day, the International Services team welcomed nearly 50 students to decorate cookies and create cards in celebration of Cornell friendships.
English-Language Proficiency
- English Language Support Office offers effective ways to mentor multilingual and international graduate and professional student writing.
- English for International Students and Scholars is a 1-credit summer and winter class offered by the School of Continuing Education.
Global Cornell Funding Opportunities
Global Cornell is committed to supporting faculty through grants that foster global learning and collaboration. For students, funding can provide engagement opportunities with cultures worldwide, mastering languages, and travel for research projects.
Grants, Internships, and Research Support
- Global Hubs offers faculty joint seed grants with Hubs partners to explore potential research collaborations with colleagues at Hubs partner universities.
- The Einaudi Center supports faculty and student research and learning through funding opportunities and partnerships on campus, in our region, and worldwide.
- Global Internships give undergraduates valuable international experience in fields spanning global development, climate and sustainability, communication, business, and governance.
- International Cornell Curriculum grants (offered periodically) support faculty as they develop or expand courses offering international experiences.
Global Across Cornell
Cornell has always been at home in the world. There’s a place for you in Global Cornell and a world of exciting opportunities across campus and beyond. Start exploring here!
Study Global
Cornell offers an abundance of classes that address international themes or take an international perspective.
Check out international classes from departments and programs across Cornell.
Global Minors
Speak Globally
At Cornell, 58 modern and ancient languages are available for study. All language programs are located in the College of Arts and Sciences. Learn about the Language Resource Center.
Global Certificate Programs
Ongoing and multiweek programs.
Certificate programs with international themes are offered by eCornell, including Creating and Enforcing International Agreements and International Public and NGO Management.
Global Institutes and Centers
- Africana Studies and Research Center
- AguaClara Cornell
- Boyce Thompson Institute
- Center for Global Health (Weill Cornell Medicine)
- Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise
- Center for the Study of Inequality
- Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
- Cornell China Center
- Cornell Population Center
- Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies
- Institute of Politics and Global Affairs
- Polson Institute for Global Development
- Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition
Global Health Program
Explore global health knowledge through experiential learning.
Part of the Division of Nutritional Sciences, the Global Health program for undergrads focuses on research, service, and training that addresses health problems that transcend national boundaries and disproportionally affect the resource-poor.
International Student Organizations
Find your community with any of the 100+ Cornell campus groups with an international focus.
International Art Collections
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art welcomes visitors to experience original works of art across a wide spectrum of global traditions, time periods, and media for education, inspiration, and delight.
The museum boasts vast and diverse international collections that are continuously being developed. Selected categories are listed below.
Global Literature
Cornell University Library has curated extensive book and digital collections about international topics and places worldwide.
Division of Asia Collections
Located in the Carl A. Kroch Library is the Division of Asia Collections, one of the richest gatherings of its kind in the United States. It features the Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia, the John M. Echols Collection on Southeast Asia, and a strong collection on South Asia.
Digital Collections
Billie Jean Isbell Andean Collection
This collection of 1,500 photographs and songs began as research for an undergraduate honors thesis in 1967.
Cornell East Asia Series
A collection of online books in searchable, downloadable format, many of which have been long out of print and unavailable.
Cornell Modern Indonesia Collection
Initiated in the 1950s by faculty committed to making contemporary analyses of Indonesia and translations of its important documents.
Global Performing Arts Database
Digital images, texts, video clips, sound recordings, and complex media objects related to the performing arts around the world.
Nepali Textbooks
About 200 school textbooks from Nepal gathered over the past 30 years.
Southeast Asia Visions: Historic Travel Narratives
European travel accounts of pre-modern Southeast Asia in English and French.
Urban Explorer: John Reps Travel Photographs
Urban Explorer documents planning practices and responses to urban issues from 15 countries.
Understanding Global Evolving Economies
Thought leadership on the role of emerging markets in the global economy.
The Cornell S.C. Johnson College of Business Emerging Markets Institute provides thought leadership on the role of emerging markets in the global economy. The college's Emerging Markets and Development theme explores international trade and finance, input markets, institutions, governance structures, international agriculture and nutrition, and more.