International Student or Other Non-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 International Students on an F-1, J-1 or other non-resident visa, 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!

Please make sure that the following forms are all completed, signed and submitted. Clicking on each link will send the document to your BGSU Adobe Sign account and send an email to your BGSU email. Be sure to login to Adobe Sign using your BGSU credentials.

  1. Complete Form I-9 - Employment Eligibility Verification at www.newi9.com using employer code 21002.
  2. IT-4 - Employee's Withholding Exemption Certificate  Note: If you live on-campus, please use your residence hall address. If you live off-campus, please use your local, off-campus address.
  3. SSA-1945 - Statement Concerning Your Employment in a Job Not Covered by Social Security
  4. Payroll Direct Deposit Request Form
  5. State of Ohio House Bill 66 - Auditor's Fraud Hotline
  6. Student Employee Retirement Form See OPERS FAQ below for more information about this form.
  7. 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.
 
Glacier Tax Software for International Students
 
  1. Every student's tax situation is different, Artic International Glacier is the online tax software used by BGSU to collect information, and make tax residency and income tax treaty determinations for international students. International students will receive an email with a link to go to the Glacier website within 3 business days of hire to complete Federal tax forms (W-4) and Statement of Exemption Under a Tax Treaty and IRS Form 8233, if applicable. 
  2. PLEASE NOTE: Students will be required to complete this process every calendar year, keep your Glacier username and password in a safe location.
  3. Watch the video below for instructions on how to complete the Glacier Tax Software process.

DO NOT BEGIN WORKING UNTIL YOU RECIEVE AN EMAIL AUTHORIZATION!!

OPERS Frequently Asked Questions

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.

If you do not have a Social Security Number (SSN), list your SSN as 000-00-0000 on this form. The Payroll Office will set up a temporary SSN in order for you to participate in, or opt out of, OPERS within the 30-day deadline. Payroll will email the last 4 digits of this temporary SSN to you. Use this temporary SSN to log on to the OPERS site until you get your permanent SSN.

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: 09/30/2024 04:11PM