<p>My D is entering her senior year this Sept at an American College and starting to plan her Graduate studies which again may be in the states. My question is based on her F1 Visa saying that she cannot stay in the States for more than 5 years which will be one year after her undergrad. How do students go about staying in the States for the extra 2 years in order to get the Masters degree. We have talked to the border crossing officials and they say there is no way, I do not believe this as there are many foriegn students I am sure that do their undergrad and grad studies in the US. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Her current visa is valid for the time needed to complete her undergrad degree. If she enrolls in grad school here, she will be issued a new I-20 by the graduate program, and will get a new visa for the duration of that program that can be extended for the length of OPT that program qualifies her for. She can talk with the people in the international student office at her current college/university if she has any specific questions about the process.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. That is exactly what I had thought and her college’s international office said the same thing but when we asked at the border (went in and talked to a person in the office) they were adamant that she could not renew for a different college and that she should have thought of that before doing her under grad. It may have just been a bad day but we are a bit concerned now.</p>
<p>Plenty of international undergraduate students stay in the US for grad school. No worries! Everything that happymomof1 said is correct (to the best of my knowledge). I would like to elaborate a bit more to clear up some insecurities you might have.</p>
<p>It is indeed not possible to “renew” a student visa. There’s a different protocol: students either need to apply for a new student visa from abroad (if they leave the US) or have their SEVIS record transferred (without leaving the US). </p>
<p>To make sense of the policies, let me highlight one important conceptual distinction: the permission to enter the US is separate from the permission to remain in the US. For F-1 visas, these are actually different. The expiration date on the visa foil indicates a permission to enter the US, while students may remain in the US as long as their SEVIS record (maintained by the university) indicates that they are in valid student status. </p>
<p>Here are the typical scenarios of a student transferring to a different university or starting a different degree program:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If the visa is still valid (before expiration date), it suffices to have the SEVIS record transferred to the new university. </p></li>
<li><p>If the visa has expired or is about to expire, the student has two options:</p></li>
</ul>
<p>(a) leave the US, apply for a new student visa and then re-enter the US on the new visa (e.g. no more than 30 days before the beginning of the next academic term).</p>
<p>(b) stay in the US and only have the SEVIS record transferred. They are still in legal student status, but they’ll have to apply for a new visa the next time they leave the US to come back in.</p>
<p>Hope this makes sense.</p>
<p>Thanks to both of you. I figured there had to be a way. We are meeting with an official at the American embassy in a couple of weeks and that should straighten everything out. After reading what you both said the anxiety level as gone down. It is bad enough that we have the stress of her stating her applications and planning for auditions that we didn’t need to worry about being refused because of F1. Our biggest hurdle though will be to show $70,000 in our bank account.</p>