Hi everyone,
I recently received the I-20 form from the university. I am a graduate student with 50k funding package, but the I-20 shows that all 60k funds are family funds, which is in fact 10k. The university funding is not stated at all. When I pointed this out and asked for correction they simply said they did not receive my university funding letter and did not renew the i-20 unless I pay for another international shipping fee. While continuing arguing with them, I was wondering if I can use the I-20 form with wrong type of funding and show the university funding package letter (which is my major source of funding) and supplementary financial documents to the visa officer.
I have been so frustrated about their irresponsibility. I know international offices are busy during this time but how could they just arrogantly ask students to pay for their own mistake? That just…doesn’t make sense.
Thanks guys and I hope to hear about your suggestions and experience …
You are right, the mistake was the international student office’s. Their mistake was to issue you an I-20 at all. The law does not allow them to do that until they have confirmed the availability of your funds. Since you didn’t provide them with acceptable documentation that you have sufficient funding for your studies, they should have denied your request for an I-20.
Now, the question is how to move forward. Your best strategy is to ask the source of your funding to confirm the funding to the international student office, pay them for shipping, and have them send you an updated I-20. I get that administrative red tape is frustrating, but your best strategy is to work within the system.
You could also use the I-20 that you already have to apply for a visa. Odds are that the consulate won’t ask you about your funding, since the university was supposed to verify it before issuing your I-20.
However, if they ask, you are in trouble. I have interacted with visa officers enough to know that they disregard all documents that are easy to forge. There’s no way the visa officer could verify the authenticity of your funding letter without a whole lot of legwork, which is not their job. The mismatch between your explanation and what’s on your I-20 (which does have a verifiable paper trail and is presumed correct) is bound to raise red flags, and your visa would likely get denied under 221(g).
Thank you so much for your professional response. I completely agree that they shouldn’t have sent out the I-20 if they did not receive my funding letter – that’s the worst excuse they can find. In fact that the beginning they did get the funding letter when I submitted it to the system, and they asked for another 10K supplementary documents and I submitted the family funds, and this was how the I-20 got issued – and because they verified the fact that I have “sufficient” funding but ended up put it wrongly on I-20. In this case I can’t ask my department to pay for the shipping, they are not involved at all. I don’t know if it is okay to continue to struggle with the international office or otherwise I just swallow it and pay for the shipping myself. The international office was even reluctant to send me a photo copy of the first page of the i-20 for review, which they still didn’t do.
I would take your advise that it’s better not to take the risk to bring the wrong I-20 and financial documents to the visa officer. This is really wise and I appreciate it.
I would suggest that you pay them for shipping. It’s not that big of an amount and not worth risking your graduate education over. Or making enemies over, for that matter.
Rule #1 of academia: always be nice to the administrative assistants. You’ll need their help again and again.