|
|
|
 |
|
Important
Information About Your Visa Status
In order to maintain student status, it is important for international students
to always be compliant with immigration rules and laws. Easy guidelines to
maintain status are:
- Keep a valid passport
- Maintain full-time enrollment and normal full-time progress toward your degree.
- Accept no employment of any kind, either on or off-campus, without written permission from the International Programs Office and, if necessary, the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)
- Obtain extensions, as needed, of your permission to stay in the United States
- Make sure you meet eligibility criteria before you transfer to another United States school.
- Have your I-20 signed by the PDSO (Primary Designated School Official) or the DSO (Designated School Official) before leaving the United States.
You will lose your status or "fall out of status" if you violate a term or condition of your non-immigrant status:
- Drop out of school
- Register for less than full-time
- Work without authorization
- Make a procedural error in transferring from one school to another.
- Fail to apply for an extension in a timely manner.
- Fail to respond to an I-515 (Notice to Student or Exchange Visitor admitted without I-20 or IAP-66), if applicable.
In order to return to the United States in valid student status after a trip abroad, students must:
- Travel with a valid passport
- Have the I-20 or I-94 re-certified as needed
- Have an un-expired student visa stamp valid for further entries in your passport
- Have your I-20 signed by the PDSO (Primary Designated School Official) or the DSO (Designated School Official) before leaving the United States.
- Carry your Confidential Letter of Agreement to prove your financial status as well as other current financial documents
Under current government reporting regulations, all non-immigrant students in F-1 visa status and their dependents (F-2) must immediately report any change of address to the government through the International Programs Office. The student is required to inform the government of the following:
- Home Address: address where you live in the U.S. You must enter the current address for the actual physical location where you reside in the U.S. This address cannot be a Post Office Box number or other location where you do not actually reside.
- Mailing Address: primary address to which correspondence will be sent. It is the address where you can receive mail directly. The mailing address may or may not be the same as your home address.
- Permanent Address: address of your established place of foreign residency (i.e. - the place where you live in your home country)
Last updated August 17, 2006 |
|
