vroni

Hi all,

I'm currently on F-1 visa, will graduate this December, I applied for OPT and Nepraska center relieved my application on October 22, I have an offer letter and my employer wants me to start in 1/1/13, I'm so worried that I will not recieve my card before this date! Do you have any idea how long does it take Nepraska center to process the post completion opt applications? I didn't receive any update on my status till now, and I'm reading that they require the applicant to do fingerprints but not sure about that. Can any one advice me?

Thanks

I applied for OPT on October 4th (they received it October 15) and received the EAD card a few days ago. But I used the Texas service center. I think fingerprints are only for those who get an EAD card because of marriage to an USC. AT least I did not have to submit fingerprints, but maybe there are different rules depending on your country of origin. What starting date did you request? By the way, isn't 1/1/13 a holiday??!! Hope you get your card in time. If Nebraska is as fast as Texas it may come next week. btw, is also did not receive any updates in between, I don't think they do that, you just apply and wait until you get it.

according to my dso (who asked uscis this specific question) your work authorization can be reinstated if you apply for h1-b during the grace period of your opt. it may take a few weeks, and you won't be allowed to work from the expiry of your opt (in March) and the reinstation of your work authorization (prob. end of april), but then you can work until your h1-b starts or is denied. ask your dso, or uscis. this information is nowhere on the uscis website and the guidelines that the dsos got are not very clear (that's why my dso specifically asked uscis).

On my driver’s license my name is spelt Preya instead of Priya because my previous employer made a spelling mistake on my H1. I transferred my H1 to another employer and that H1 shows my correct name as Priya.

I went to DMV in Wayne, NJ to renew my license which expires on 24 Dec 2012. They said they cannot renew it because my license has the wrong name and my current H1, passport, SSN has my correct name. They emailed USCIS to check if I am the same person. However they did not say when they will get back to me.

My questions are:

1) how long will it take for them to get back to me?

2) what if they come back saying that I am not the same person? What are my other options to renew my license?

My H1 expires in 2014, and I do not have any plans of leaving this country for stamping purposes in the near future.

Thank you.

can't you make a new license in your correct name, rather then renewing the old one? i had to wait for one of those checks with USCIS once (since I went to the DMV only a few month after traveling abroad and the correct information was not yet in the database), and I had to wait for a at least 2 month. My bf waited for 4 month!

Hello everyone I am currently doing my MBA in the US, I am hoping to find an employer who will sponsor me after my diploma but I am looking for plan B just in case.

I notice in all the school when I have been in the US that the Director and the staff of the international service are all former international student themselves. Do you think I can apply and get sponsored top work in the International service of my University if I do not find a job ?

Does anyone has information or experience about people being sponsor by the Universities ?

Thank you very much !

universities can sponsor H1-B and they are also cap exempt. but I don't think they just give away jobs to students that did not get any other job.

i think P1, since he will earn money from a US source.

i'm not an expert but for me it sounds like you need a P1 visa. can you ask an immigration lawyer online?

not sure many people have experience with P1 visas.

b1/b2 application was refused under section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. (at least giving an explanation)).

it sounds as if you could not convince them that you don't have immigration intend. it will be hard to convince them unless your situation changes, so you will probably have a hard time getting any type of non-immigrant visa.

if and when you can travel with ESTA again is a complete mystery. no one knows how they decide that someone who was denied a visa can travel under VWP again.

I asked them again (what type of visa I will need in order to attend a 30-hours NON- ACCREDITED seminar on January). Their reply was: "In response to your e-mail we would like to inform you that we are unable to pre-determine the category of the visa that you wish to apply for. If you would like to reapply, you will need to make a new appointment with our office, fill out a new DS-160 and pay the application fee."

Can you please tell me, what am I supposed to understand from these replies?

it's not their job to offer you advice on what kind of non-immigrant visa to apply to. you could ask the seminar organizers for advice. if they do not give you an I-20 or I-20M-N you can not apply to F-1 or M-1. i guess then it should be a B-1 visa (not entirely sure).

But again there is that question in the VWP, if one's has ever been denied a visa or entry, so how one's handle that then?

from now on you will always have to answer YES.

why did you apply for a visa and did not travel under VWP?

how much does it COST to pursue a MASTER in INFORMATION SYSTEMS in the US if u have a green card...i just want to know the maximum and minimum cost to it......

that varies a lot from school to school (from a couple of thousand to around $40,000 per year). if you pick a school you can usually find the cost for tuition on the website of the school. also, you need to pay out-of state tuition if you have not lived in the state for at least 12 month (I think Tennessee is an exception).

have you checked fulbright? but it might be only for graduate students. maybe you can find something here: http://exchanges.state.gov/prog-non-us.html

usually, if you come as an exchange student for a year you don't pay tuition. but your university in your home country would need an agreement with the university in the US.

I spoke to the tax preparer at work and she said if I am earning less than $9500 from Jan to Dec then I do not need to withhold taxes.

the deductible for non resident aliens is different then the one for resident aliens. make sure you ask someone you has knowledge about taxes for non-residents.

does your school offer cintax?

Absolutely wrong. If a person has no income or income below the reporting threshold, the person is exempt from filing a federal tax return.

well, the international tax expert at my university told us that all international students are required to file their taxes regardless if they earn money in the US or not.

it might be different for resident aliens (for tax purp), but the OP is not one.

the company that you work for should withheld your taxes. it does not matter if they don't any difference between payed taxes and taxes that you owe will be compensated when you file your taxes. just make sure you get a W-2 or a similar form. you did get authorization from USICS for the job, right?

Thanks for the info. Although while on CPT I have read I do not need to pay medicare or social security since I am a non resident alien as I have been here for less than 5 years, is this correct? I read that on the ICE website. With regards to taxes, I will make sure I get that changed. So my question should be how much money do I need to earn to pay taxes? If im understanding you correctly I need to pay taxes regardless of how much I make, but I can file for a tax refund at the end of the tax year?

When you live in the US you have to file a tax return every year regardless if you have any income. so you just do the tax return as you should have done in the last years and report your income. you should get a form from every employer noting the salary and the amount of state and federal tax. so next April just file your federal and state tax returns.

you have to pay taxes. the company that you work for should withheld an approximation of the required taxes, if they withhold to much or to little you will either have to pay the difference or get a refund next year when you do your tax return. if you work very little the deductible might be higher than what you earned. then you would get back all of the taxes that you have paided.

I would propose now, start the process for a K-1 fiancee visa and then have her go to school after she gets the visa and green card.

I would first check if I fulfill the income requirements to sponsor someone.

Once sheʻs a resident tuition drops dramatically

PhD program in science area should usually come with tuition waiver and living stipend or teaching assistantship. Financially, I think it's easier to get the student visa for PhD program then K-1. for

Thank you for the advice! Her English is very good, but not perfect.

Ah ok, it sounded as if she could barely speak the language, lol. As long as she can get enough points for the TOEFL and decent points for the GRE she will be fine. At my university if they determine that your English is not good enough you have to take ESL classes (I had to). I could barely speak English when I came here, but I could understand it fine. In my opinion you don't

learn so much in classes. In that case, I would try to apply for the PhD program for next fall. Tell her to watch DVDs or TV in English, that helped me the most.

As far as asking, absolutely yes!

Maybe it's just me, but I would be a little bit insulted if someone ask me to marry him before even knowing me. I would prefer my future husband to know all my quirks and annoying little details, before deciding to marry me. I live together with my boyfriend for 5 years now, and we just started to even talk about the possibility of marriage.

If she goes to language school in the US, and then later starts a PhD program at the same location in the US, she

might have a difficult time getting a visa. I have heard multiple times that embassies are suspicious if you try

to get two different non-immigrant visas for the same location. my advise would be either

1) take an english class in Turkey, and apply for the PhD program in the US as soon as possible OR

2) take an english class in the UK, and apply for the PhD program a year later

How much English does she speak? It must be enough for you two to communicate, or do you have a common

language besides English?

Also, you might want to ask your department if they give preference to partners. my department does, but I

don't know how common it is.

Do you really want to ask her to marry you if you haven't even lived together??!!

She can not stay 5 month with visa waiver, only 90 days. if she overstays she might not be able to enter with visa waiver again, and

will need a B-2 visa for every visit.

oh, never mind. she's canadian, so it's not the VWP. sorry, yes in theory she could stay for 180 days.

Our plan as this point is for her to stay for 5 months or so (definitely within the 180 day window)

She can not stay 5 month with visa waiver, only 90 days. if she overstays she might not be able to enter with visa waiver again, and

will need a B-2 visa for every visit.

As far as I know, if you go to your International Office and tell them that you're AOSing then you get the option of "maintaining F1 status" until your application is pending. Meaning, you'll be just like a regular F1 student, can work on campus, pays non-resident tuition etc.

But to maintain your F-1 status you have to be a full time student.

Since it is a state sponsored college, then there are two tiers of tuition. For in-state residents, the cost is relatively reasonable. For out-of-state students and international students, the tuition is much higher.

Based on $5,000 tuition, you must be looking at the wrong tuition rate.

Here is the tuition for the University of California, San Diego (a state sponsored 4 years college); http://students.ucsd.edu/finances/financial-aid/budgeting/undergrad-2012-13.html

California residents: $13,234 tuition.

Non-California residents (that's you): $13,234 tuition + $22,878 supplemental tuition = $36,112.

UCSD would charge you $36,112 tuition for each year.

I also suspect that the OP looked at the in-state tuition. But the I-20 should include the correct tuition, unless the school really screws it up. OP do you mind telling us the schools name? I understand if you don't want to.

it's a violation of your immigration status. don't do it! if you need money, work on campus. you don't need opt or cpt for that, or find a job that is related to your study.

But wouldn't say 25 be classed as part time?

no, the limit is 20. that's for part time CPT and OPT. the definition is <=20h/week -> part time, >20h/week -> full time

Basically on a part time CPT, whats the max amount of hours I can work per week? And also what happens if I go over this by a few hours??

you can work for 20 hours.