International Services Office

The ISO serves the Detroit Mercy community and the Detroit area and, in alignment with the greater Detroit Mercy mission, enriches the quality of life of all Detroit Mercy students, provides immigration and academic support to non-immigrant students and faculty, fosters cultural understanding and awareness through practical and creative experiences, and advances a campus culture that admires and celebrates the diversity of Detroit Mercy’s rich global viewpoints.

1. Provide information, advice and assistance in matters of immigration to prospective, admitted and current students and to University departments. 
2. Provide current non-immigrant students with ongoing orientation to the University and the United States.
3. Administer the University’s health insurance program for international students.
4. Work with other University areas to ensure that the special needs (namely academic and social needs) of non-immigrant students are met.
5. Sponsor a broad range of on- and off-campus recreational, educational and cross-cultural programs and events for international and domestic students. 

ISO Director, PDSO
J1 Exchange Program Responsible Officer
Weihong Sun
Phone: 313-993-3323
Fax: 313-993-1192
Email: sunwe@udmercy.edu

ISO Associate Director, International Student Advisor, DSO
Megan Featherstone
Phone: 313-993-3305
Email: featheme@udmercy.edu

Administrative Assistant, DDO
Shamike Adams-Morgan
Phone: 313-993-1205
Fax: 313-993-1192
Email: shamikad@udmercy.edu

ALCP Program Manager
Catherine Franklin
Phone: 313-993-3320
Email: franklca1@udmercy.edu

ALCP Assistant Coordinator
Alison Roberts
Phone: 313-993-1079
Email: robertad1@udmercy.edu

Please Note: The International Services Office is unable to answer questions about your admission application. For information on your application and its status, please contact the International Admissions Counselor, Veronica Beltran at beltrave@udmercy.edu.

• International Admissions
• Admissions Office: 313-993-1245 or 800-635-5020

Check out the Department of Homeland Security STEM rules

Summary: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is amending its F-1 nonimmigrant student visa regulations on optional practical training (OPT) for certain students with degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) from U.S. institutions of higher education. Specifically, the final rule allows such F-1 STEM students who have elected to pursue 12 months of OPT in the United States to extend the OPT period by 24 months (STEM OPT extension). This 24-month extension effectively replaces the 17-month STEM OPT extension previously available to certain STEM students. The rule also improves and increases oversight over STEM OPT extensions by, among other things, requiring the implementation of formal training plans by employers, adding wage and other protections for STEM OPT students and U.S. workers, and allowing extensions only to students with degrees from accredited schools. As with the prior 17-month STEM OPT extension, the rule authorizes STEM OPT extensions only for students employed by employers who participate in E-Verify. The rule also includes the “Cap-Gap” relief first introduced in a 2008 DHS regulation for any F-1 student with a timely filed H-1B petition and request for change of status.