<p>I am a PR but my green card expired some time ago ... legally I'm still a permanent resident (the status never expires while inside the country) but I am considering asking my school to apply for a visa for me just to secure my spot of admission while I get my card renewed. I however don't want this to jeopardise financial aid.</p>
<p>It so sucks that my passport expired too -- my family can barely afford to send my admissions deposit, never mind fork out thousands of dollars to renew of each family member's documents. I don't know anything less drastic to think of.</p>
<p>PLEASE get your PR status renewed. There are several reasons why you should do this:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>You can only apply for a student visa from abroad. Once you leave the country, you will lose your PR status.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are not living close to the Canadian or Mexican boarder, the cost of travelling to an embassy abroad plus the $200+ fee for an F-1 visa will make the F-1 visa more expensive than the renewal of your PR status.</p></li>
<li><p>You might lose institutional grants (check with the college) and you would defnitely lose federal aid (work-study, loans etc) once you have lost your PR status.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Have you considered taking out a loan to finance the renewal? If that is not an option, why don’t you work full-time for a semester or a year to earn money and get your card renewed before you start college? It might not be your favorite option but taking a year off is better than never going to college. Most colleges will allow you to defer your enrollment for one year to work (or travel or…).</p>
<p>Btw, would your entire family have to renew their documents all at once, or could you only renew your own passport and your own PR card? And has the college explicitly expressed concerns about your expired passport and PR card, or why do you think it will be a problem if you are still in status even though your documents are expired?</p>
<p>Well, I know I’m still a PR – but I can’t apply for a visa on top of my PR, just to ease documentation? I’m not scared about being kicked out, I’m scared about being denied admission because they’re asking me to submit proof of residency with my deposit. I thought the outdated card would do fine, until financial aid got back to me saying I needed to send them an updated one.</p>
<p>My legal status is currently a legal resident, but I don’t have any other means with which to prove residency, unless they want an also non-updated social security card (which still says I can’t work, because we haven’t the time or money to change it … )</p>
<p>Also, UVA would apply for the visa for me – I wouldn’t travel anywhere.</p>
<p>Also, we’re struggling to even make rent (950 dollars a month) and the 250 dollar deposit is already scraping up a substantial portion of our monthly savings, and the Fed doesn’t make applying for a waiver any less time-consuming (time is also something which my mother can’t afford).</p>
<p>If you are sure that a college can just “apply for a visa” for you, go ahead. You seem to be determined to do it - why do you even ask us?</p>
<p>All I know is that my college’s international student office kept telling us repeatedly that there is no way to apply for a F-1 visa from within the US (not even for students who are in a different visa status at that time). We have been told repeatedly that it is possible to adjust status from F-1 to virtually any other immigration status but not the other way round. Maybe some laws have changed recently, maybe I misunderstood them, maybe they are wrong.</p>
<p>Anyway, I HIGHLY doubt that you can have two different immigration status’ at the same time - that’s just not how the American immigration system is set up. But nobody here is qualified to give legal advice and it is never a good idea to rely on advice from a random stranger on the internet anyway. Have you called USCIS or a US consulate and asked your question? They would be your best sources of information!</p>
<p>Well I was wondering if it was quite possible … I’m looking the form which listsa a checkbox for, “I am a foreign national who does not require a visa document…” and another checkbox for “I am a foreign national residing lawfully inside the US who is also requesting a visa document …”</p>
<p>I think the “visa document” that they are referring to is the I-20, a form that confirms you are indeed enrolled at an American college. However, it is only one of the documents you need to apply for a visa, and you would still have to apply for a visa yourself (probably at an embassy abroad).</p>
<p>J-1 is a different story. It might be possible to adjust status into J-1, but J-1 visas are meant for exchange visitors and come with a few significant strings attached (e.g. under certain circumstances you might be required to live in your home country for two years after graduation before you will be considered for another US visa!) The regular student visas are F-1 visas.</p>
<p>But suppose I did apply for a visa, through proxy and such – when they look at granting visas I suppose they might check for previous applications and history and such, but they wouldn’t anticipate a PR applying for a visa?</p>
<p>I’ve tried googling for others that may be in my situation … I guess I’m alone.</p>
<p>Intent of the Requirement
The purpose of the two year home residency requirement is to enable the home country to benefit from the Exchange Visitor’s experience in the U.S. Exchange Visitors come to this country for a specific objective such as a program of study or a research project. The requirement is intended to prevent participants from staying longer than is necessary to complete their objective, and to ensure that they will spend at least two years in the home country before coming back to the United States for a long-term stay.</p>
<p>You Are Subject to the Requirement…</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If your J-1 program is or was funded in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of exchange, by your home government or the United States government <a href=“now%20think%20about%20financial%20aid…”>i</a>*. Funding includes loans and coverage of expenses such as tuition, books, insurance etc.</p></li>
<li><p>If, as a J-1 Exchange Visitor, you are acquiring a skill that is in short supply in your home country according to the United States government’s “Exchange Visitor Skills List.” The list, originally appearing in 1972, was last revised in the Federal Register January 16, 1997, pp.2447-2516. You are subject to the home residency requirement if your skill was on the Skills List at the time that you entered the U.S., even if the skill is later removed.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have participated as a J-1 Exchange Visitor in a graduate medical education or training program; that is a residency, internship, or fellowship, sponsored by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. Programs involving observing, consulting, researching or teaching with no patient care are not considered “medical education or training.”</p></li>
</ul>
<p>If you look at the strings attached, do you really want to become a J-1 student? I mean, as a PR you are bound to receive some sort of federal financial aid (loans? work study?) and then the J-1 regulations would kick in and force you to return to your home country for two years before allowing you to return.</p>
<p>“But suppose I did apply for a visa, through proxy and such” - so do you already have a J-1 visa or not? If you do, we can stop our conversation right here… If you are referring to your PR visa, when did you get it - at age 5 or 6? The rules for 5-year-old kids who become PRs along with their families are different than the rules for a student applying for a visa.</p>
<p>“when they look at granting visas I suppose they might check for previous applications and history and such” First of all, a PR application IS part of your visa history! Secondly, almost all non-immigrant visa applications ask for your immigration background and history - I would be surprised if J-1 applications did not.</p>
I am not sure I understand your question. Your deposit holds your place in the incoming freshman class for the upcoming year. Your entrance is only deferred if you explicitly ask for it and get a letter from the college confirming it. But you would also have to pay a deposit if you were to defer your enrollment.</p>
<p>Again, if money is such a big issue that you cannot renew your PR card, I think you should seriously consider taking a semester off to work before college.</p>
<p>Let me summarize your situation again:
The fin aid office needs a valid copy of your PR card and you don’t have one. Guess what, as long as you don’t show give the fin aid office proof that you are a permanent resident you will not be able to receive any federal financial aid (and usually no institutional grants either). What do you gain by getting a student visa if the only department making trouble is financial aid? They only need to see your PR card to verify that you are indeed a PR because they are not allowed to give you any federal funds before that. Showing them proof of a student visa will confirm that you are not eligible for financial aid… because why in the world would you get a student visa as a PR???</p>
<p>Btw, I recently became a PR and I don’t have my PR card yet. The fin aid office said that it would be sufficient if I could show them the card by August. Have you talked to the fin aid office and explained your situation?</p>
<p>I’m asked to send my documents to two places: the admissions office and the financial aid office. I was just wondering if it was possible to get two statuses at once …</p>
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</p>
<p>Would work-study not suffice…?</p>
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<p>I’ve been calling them all month but usually it’s with busy tones (and I don’t have the opportunity to try often since school hours coincides with office hours) and I’m going to try again tomorrow. </p>
<p>I can’t afford to call long-distance so naturally I have to borrow the school phone on my free periods … and all my eight blocks are used up so I only get mine three out of every ten days.</p>
<p>I haven’t applied for any visas – I was just wondering <em>if</em> it was possible.</p>
<p>Nothing against work-study but you will not be able to use work-study to pay for the renewal of your card - because you won’t be able to do work-study before you have a valid card (work-study is subsidized by the federal government and therefore only available to US citizens and confirmed PRs). </p>
<p>How are you going to pay for your books at the beginning of the semester? Most of my textbooks (math, econ, sciences) are between $100 and $200 each and we need the current editions because professors assign homework right out of the textbooks. (Admittedly though books are a lot cheaper in some other subjects - most notably philosophy where the texts you read cost $5-$15 each and are available online for free!) You are able to resell your books at the end of the semester to get most of your money back but you still need a good amount of money initially.</p>
<p>How about e-mailing the fin aid & admission offices?</p>
<p>I do not think it is possible or a good idea to attempt to apply for a visa if your Status is permanent resident. You could get yourself into a big mess. Also you have to be a permanent resident to qualify for any federal aid. Do ***not ***start messing around with your resident status in this way or you may end up with worse problems than financial aid.</p>
<p>You have a computer so you have access to email. Email your school with your problem and ask their advice. Do it as soon as possible - tomorrow. Or even now. Perhaps if you explain the situation it may even be possible to get some sort of waiver on the deposit.</p>
<p>If there is no way around the unexpired green card then they will tell you that and you will have to figure out what to do next. If you live somewhere near an INS office perhaps it would be worth taking the time to go and talk to them. Getting a new green card takes several months I believe but I think they can give you temporary documentation that would probably satisfy the school. I don’t know if you would be able to do this without paying the fees (which i agree are very high).</p>
<p>The first thing is to contact the school and explain the situation. Do that now. Good luck.</p>
When you apply for a visa they investigate you and require information about you - where you live, police record searches etc. If you attempt to get a visa from elsewhere while you are living here that will involve lying to the immigration people which is breaking the law - a very risky thing to do which could jepardize your current legal status. Do not do this.</p>