Change of Visa Status

[Eva Nti 0]

I am from Ghana and currently in the US with B1B2 visa. I am hoping to change the status in order to stay here to work or further my education. I currently hold a Bachelors and Masters degree. What ways can I go about to change my visa status? Can I apply for a job, an internship or short course to enable me change my status?

Is it possible to extend my entry visa?

[Unlockable 7,306]

You can't. That is not how the process works. You can't work on a visitor visa. It is ONLY for visiting.

 

In order for you to get a work visa you must first find a company that is willing to apply for the visa for you. It is a long process (months) and expensive process. 

 

You can't just come on a visitor visa and change to a working visa. There is no way for you to do that.

[Springrain22 427]

There's no way you can adjust your status from a visitor nor extend your visa. You can however try to switch to F1 if you qualify and have money for it (it's expensive). But there's no way visitors can become legal residents only because they want so. If that was this simple, we'd have the whole Ghana here.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Springrain22

[DrEllaNJ 288]

you only qualify for F1 if you have been accepted for a full-time course of study. Here's an article about the complications that arise when you want to change your status from B1/B2 visa to F1 visa: http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/applying-for-student-visa-while-on-tourist.html

 

You can apply for jobs hoping that the company will like you enough to sponsor you for a visa. However, most H1B visas are capped at 65,000 per year (or something) so the company will have to wait until next April to apply for a visa starting in October. You'll have to go home at the end of your authorized tourist visa status and apply from your home country. There's a number of institutions that do not have the cap (education for example). But still, the process is long. Here's some faq about changing to a work visa - http://www.lawqa.com/qa/how-can-i-convert-my-b1-b2-visa-to-h1-visa

[Eva Nti 0]

2 hours ago, DrEllaNJ said:

you only qualify for F1 if you have been accepted for a full-time course of study. Here's an article about the complications that arise when you want to change your status from B1/B2 visa to F1 visa: http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/applying-for-student-visa-while-on-tourist.html

 

You can apply for jobs hoping that the company will like you enough to sponsor you for a visa. However, most H1B visas are capped at 65,000 per year (or something) so the company will have to wait until next April to apply for a visa starting in October. You'll have to go home at the end of your authorized tourist visa status and apply from your home country. There's a number of institutions that do not have the cap (education for example). But still, the process is long. Here's some faq about changing to a work visa - http://www.lawqa.com/qa/how-can-i-convert-my-b1-b2-visa-to-h1-visa

Thank you very much for the feedback. I will check out the links. 

[Eva Nti 0]

3 hours ago, Springrain22 said:

There's no way you can adjust your status from a visitor nor extend your visa. You can however try to switch to F1 if you qualify and have money for it (it's expensive). But there's no way visitors can become legal residents only because they want so. If that was this simple, we'd have the whole Ghana here.

I expected some sort of immigration rules thats why I asked the question to be educated. I wasn't expecting it to be that easy to switch I just wanted to understand the process. so thank you for the inputs.

[Eva Nti 0]

3 hours ago, NuestraUnion said:

You can't. That is not how the process works. You can't work on a visitor visa. It is ONLY for visiting.

 

In order for you to get a work visa you must first find a company that is willing to apply for the visa for you. It is a long process (months) and expensive process. 

 

You can't just come on a visitor visa and change to a working visa. There is no way for you to do that.

the comments are very helpful. Thank you

[TBoneTX 43,019]

Six posts of a noncontributory or borderline-fraudulent nature have been removed.  The OP has received adequate advice, so this thread is now locked to further comment.  Do not restart this thread or refer to it elsewhere.

 

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