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15-Aug-2000 02:55 PM

confusion

zaozaoz

Frank:
I am confused

ne of the int'l student advisor said it could be very difficult to change B-2 to F-1, at least not in Southern California(one of his client has been waiting for that for 23 months and still don't get it), but you said most of the school can do it easily. Can you please indicate at least one of colleges which will help me to get it done? And what if I got failed by the immigration consulor after I already started studying in the college?

15-Aug-2000 05:12 PM

Re: confusion

Frank

That would be quite an unusual case if the person's change of status application was still pending after 23 months. There are very bad delays sometimes, but if it were to take that long, it sounds like INS must have just lost the application. (That advisor may also have been trying to convince you not to come on a tourist visa, perhaps rightly, giving you a horror story from his or her experience.)

INS has four regional service centers that handle these types of applications, by the way. I'm not very familiar with the kinds of delays or other problems that the Western Service Center has (Southern California being in that region).

You're right, though, to anticipate the problem of what would happen to your studies if you had applied for a change of status and were subsequently denied. If that were to happen, your best option would be to then leave the U.S., apply for an F-1 entry visa from overseas, and then return in F-1 status.

I have to agree with the other person who had commented on your situation. Even though the change of status application is not difficult to complete, in light of potential hold-ups, and the fact that you can't legally work until you are granted the change of status, you'd be better off waiting, if at all possible, for an I-20 to be sent to you for a program that you've been accepted into. You could then apply for the F-1 visa before you leave, avoiding all this hassel later on.

As for schools, I've always thought it best to first find a program that you want to pursue. Once you've found that, then start asking them about how they handle specific visa-related problems. That way you won't be wasting time with programs that may only serve as a relatively easy visa fix, which then fail to satify your academic needs and career goals.

Perhaps some others visiting this site could offer suggestions about Computer Science programs at schools where they've had an especially positive impression of the visa advising services.

You may want to clarify the area of Computer Science that you're interested in getting into, what level, etc.

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