US Citizen or US Permanent Resident
NOTE: Never send forms with sensitive information (SSN, birthday, etc.) by email without encryption. We have tools available to help you submit your information safely, please call or email if you have any questions or concerns.
The instructions below are applicable to all US Citizens and US Permanent Residents who are newly hired student employees at BGSU. Before we can authorize you to begin working for BGSU, you must complete the entire new hire process outlined on this page.
Please read all steps carefully!
I. Fill out USCIS Form I-9 - go to the website below to complete your I-9 Form.
- Complete Form I-9 - Employment Eligibility Verification at www.newi9.com using employer code 21002.
II. Please make sure that the following forms are all completed, signed and submitted. Clicking on each link will send the document to your BGSU email. When prompted by Adobe Sign, use your BGSU email address to access the forms.
- Form W-4 - Employee's Withholding Certificate Complete steps 2-4 on this form if they apply to you, otherwise skip to step 5 to sign and date.
- IT-4 - Employee's Withholding Exemption Certificate Note: If you live on-campus, please use a permanent address (e.g. a parent's or guardian's address). If you live off-campus, please use your local, off-campus address.
- SSA-1945 - Statement Concerning Your Employment in a Job Not Covered by Social Security
- Payroll Direct Deposit Request Form
- State of Ohio House Bill 66 - Auditor's Fraud Hotline
- Student Employee Retirement Form See OPERS FAQ below for more information about this form.
- Visit Student Employment Services, 225 Bowen-Thompson Student Union to complete the onboarding process:
- Bring with you a valid, original and/or certified copies of acceptable identification and employment authorization documents to complete your Form I-9. Federal law prohibits us from accepting scans, photocopies or any other copy of acceptable documents unless certified by the issuing office.
DO NOT BEGIN WORKING UNTIL YOU RECIEVE AN EMAIL AUTHORIZATION!!
OPERS Frequently Asked Questions
You can use this link for more information: The Basics: Membership in OPERS for College Students
OPERS offers participants the choice of 2 plans – a Traditional Pension Plan, or a Member-Directed Plan. You can read more about these plans here: https://www.opers.org/members/Plan-select/index.shtml
Pros: OPERS provides age and service retirement, disability, and survivor benefit programs for public employees throughout the state who are not covered by another state or local retirement system.
If there’s a possibility that you will work at another public institution in Ohio in your career, joining OPERS now can get you a head start on earning service credit and accumulating retirement benefits.
Even if your career does not end up being in the public sector, participating in OPERS now will allow you to save 10% of your earnings in a retirement account while you are working for BGSU. You can request a refund or rollover of your member contributions later once you are no longer employed by BGSU.
Cons: Your net pay will be lower. 10% of your earnings will be contributed to OPERS.
If you don’t think it’s likely you’ll work at another public institution in Ohio in your career, participating in OPERS as a student employee might not be worth it. Even though you can request a refund from OPERS later, it doesn’t happen automatically – you’ll have to remember to make the request.
Call the Payroll Office at 419-372-2201 and ask them to verify whether OPERS has sent the email yet. If it’s still before the 30-day deadline, we should be able to have OPERS re-send the email.
Employees contribute 10% of their gross earnings to OPERS – this amount will come out of your paycheck. BGSU contributes another 14% of your gross earnings to OPERS for you – this amount will not come out of your paycheck, BGSU pays for this.
Student employees will have OPERS deducted from their paychecks if they didn’t complete all the required exemption steps within the 30-day window.
Also, for an OPERS exemption to be in effect, a student must have an approved exemption request on file and meet the minimum course credit hours listed below:
- Undergraduate students – 6 credited hours per term
- Graduate students – 4 credited hours per term
NOTE: IF YOU WORK DURING A TERM WHERE YOUR CREDIT HOURS ARE BELOW THE THRESHOLD (SUMMER TERM, FOR EXAMPLE), OPERS CONTRIBUTIONS WILL BE DEDUCTED FROM YOUR PAYCHECK DURING THAT TERM, REGARDLESS OF PRIOR EXEMPTION STATUS. WHEN YOU RETURN TO THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF CREDIT HOURS; YOUR EXEMPTION WILL GO BACK INTO EFFECT.
Once a student employee ends their employment with BGSU, they can apply for a refund of their OPERS contributions by following these instructions-https://www.opers.org/members/refunds.shtml
Updated: 06/13/2024 03:59PM