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Harvard’s International Office confirmed that it is checking the status of students’ visas on a daily basis, following a Sunday announcement to international students on the revocation of five Harvard affiliates’ visas.

Harvard’s graduate student union shared the HIO’s policy in a Tuesday email to its bargaining unit, after the union emailed HIO leadership to solicit guarantees on visa status updates for international student workers.

According to the email, the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers contacted HIO Office Senior Director Martha D. Gladue on Monday with a list of requests. They asked the HIO to check international student workers’ Service and Exchange Visitor Information System status daily and notify students of any status change within 30 minutes.

The union also requested that the HIO expand email communications to include undocumented and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals affiliates and relay updates to “the wider Harvard community.”

“We understand HIO faces considerable pressures in light of federal scrutiny of the University, as well as significantly increased workload,” union leadership wrote in the email. “We are making these requests because our members have indicated that such assurances, coming directly from HIO as an authority on student-related immigration issues, would significantly alleviate ongoing anxieties about the current situation.”

Following the union’s requests, the HIO confirmed that they are doing daily checks of the SEVIS system. While HIO Director of Immigration Services Maureen Martin said that the office was checking SEVIS on a “regular basis” at a webinar last week, Harvard did not clarify the daily checks until Tuesday.

But the union’s Tuesday email did not include any details on the request to include undocumented affiliates and DACA recipients on HIO mailing lists.

University officials declined to comment on the union’s request and the HIO’s response.

In an emailed statement, HGSU-UAW President Sara V. Speller wrote that the union does not claim the HIO changed its policies because of Monday’s list of requests. But she added that HGSU-UAW will continue to ask for increased communication from the University.

“Harvard’s students, student-workers, and workers are all facing immense uncertainty with the federal administration’s attacks on higher education, and the lack of updates or resources from University officials over the last few months has left so many people feeling lost and vulnerable,” she wrote.

HGSU-UAW proposed ground rules during their ongoing contract negotiations that included a “safety plan” for international students giving testimony at bargaining sessions, which were not adopted. The two parties agreed to continue negotiations without ground rules during a March 28 negotiation after a protracted debate over open bargaining.

Their next bargaining session is scheduled for Thursday.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.