aesthetic_ascetic

I had two... one from Penn State, which I accepted, and another from South Carolina, which they sent without even asking me if I wanted to join them or not... never bothered to cancel it... I still have it somewhere in my papers... nothing happened at the airport... this was five months ago...

Should change my signature... I'm no longer Penn State bound... I'm at Penn State... "We are... PENN STATE!" (Thats the university football slogan... :) ... I'm a cricket guy, but what the heck...)

I was wondering if there have recently been any horror stories of people not being allowed back in to the US after travelling to their home countries... I plan to do that in March, to attend my sister's wedding... the timing is a touch awkward, because it will be the middle of the semester, but it will be during the 10-day long spring break, so I won't be missing any classes... of course I'll make sure I have everything in order, I-20 stamped, my student ID, transcripts, proof of enrollment, the kitchen sink, and every other document I might need... but it still makes me nervous...

This is strange... I can't see my original post!

Can you go for this OPT thing after a PhD too? Will it be more than 1 year in that case?

Congratulations! Sent you a PM just now...

Just leave, if you want to... the company is not going to come looking for you in the US... go on working till the day you leave... you'll lose the salary for the days you worked, but trust me, you'll get a kick out of keeping all this a secret and then suddenly disappearing... This is what I'm doing... ;) On a more serious note, I don't think its possible to start attending a school in one semester with a visa issued using an I-20 for another semester...

No, as Tino explained earlier, you DO NOT have to attend the mediocre school if you have the visa with its name on it... thats what I thought would be the case too, but as things stand now, you can go to the better school and get a transfer, as long you do it before you enroll...

Yeah, it isn't simple, and with all the explanations Scenario 2 entails, it will be very easy for you to screw things up... If the better school is willing to defer your admission till next semester or next year, and they let you know that its no problem at all, I don't know if its a good idea to get the visa for the mediocre school... Opinion 1: Its a waste of time and money... if you get the visa, and you should, you won't be attending anyhow, because you'll be staying in India waiting for next semester to arrive so you can appear for a visa interview again with the better school's I-20, and when the interview arrives, you'll have to explain why you didn't join the mediocre school last semester... Opinion 2: On the other hand, if you do get the visa with the mediocre school's I-20, it might make it easier to get the visa next semester, becasue the VO will be able to see that last semester you were all clear and you were good enough to get a visa... I don't know how quickly you can get a visa in India and if there are any security checks involved as they are here in Pakistan, but if there are, the delay would be significantly reduced... I'm a good example: as I keep repeating, last year it took 50 days for the security clearance, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because this time it took... 6 days! So I'd go for the second option... and, as Tino explained above, you might not even have to go through the visa interview again if you follow the first plan and show up at the better school and get a transfer... so, either way, its a win-win situation... the only thing that can go wrong is a visa rejection, but then thats always the only thing that can go wrong...

Answer to first question: No, you cannot use an I-20 from one school to attend another... in fact, you cannot even use an I-20 issued for one semester and start attending in another semester... Answer to second question: Try finding out when the I-20 from the better school will arrive, and get the interview appointment for the day after... the SEVIS reciept you will need to show at the interview can be printed on your computer immediately after you pay the fee online with a credit/debit card... just make sure the computer you use is connected to a printer...

Yeah, I got my BE in 2003, and when I applied, I still hadn't got the MS degree, but I just told him I will get it soon since I finished the requirements in March 2006, but the University is delaying giving me the degree... he also asked me whether I had worked... I said no... so, I explained what I did since 2003 and the answers were good enough... Just don't mention the cheating part... don't even mention the word unless necessary... that would just take the conversation in another direction... I'm not saying that he/she will assume that you were involved in anything sinister, but its best to keep the discussion away from such things...

He should call the better school, and insist on giving them a credit/debit card number so that they can send the I-20 by express mail on his expense, not theirs... they should oblige... But you're right, its a touch too late, but it could still be manageable if he's from a country where the consulate issues visas quickly... there's another thread started by auburnph where it appears that in the Phillipines, you're likely to get the visa in as little as four days... so if he's from such a country, good for him... of course one must also consider the time required for getting an interview date, if the consulate does not have walk-in interviews for F1 candidates... However, it is true that time appears to be running out... if I were him, I'd try asking for my admission to be defered till the next spring semester, or even the next fall semester, if the school allows deferals... Try asking for a deferal... if they agree, great... six months is no big deal, and its better than applying for a visa now and ending up rejected because of a lack of time...

Well, if you haven't yet paid the SEVIS fee for the mediocre school, there's no need to worry... obviously you'd pay the SEVIS fee prior to applying for the visa, because you'll need to show the SEVIS fee reciept if the VO asks for it, but in most cases he/she will be able to see on the computer whether you've paid it or not... So if you haven't paid the fee, go ahead and pay it using the number issued by the better school... I had two I-20s, one from Penn State and another from the University of South Carolina... Penn State is ranked 19th in my field, South Carolina had a solid research group but the department was so small that it did not even appear in the rankings... so I just didn't do anything about their I-20... I paid the SEVIS fee using the Penn State I-20, and the other I-20 or SEVIS number never came up in the visa interview... now that I have the visa with Penn State written on it, I'm going to return the other I-20 if they want it back... Now, if you've applied for the visa already for the mediocre school, and paid the fee, well, you'll have to wait for someone else to answer, since I wouldn't know what to do in that case...

Yeah, what were you doing these three years if you weren't studying or working? You'll need a good answer, but telling the truth is better than making up a fake certificate... as I answered in your other thread, you never know if they'll call the company or not, but if they do, you're in trouble... its a big risk... if you insist on taking it, you'd probably want to make sure that the company agrees that you have been working there... that won't be easy to do, unless of course the CEO or President is a personal friend... :) ... seriously though, don't do it...

I don't think they have the time to call every school or workplace, but you never know... if I were you, I wouldn't take that risk, because if they do call the company and find out you were never there, its going to be a reject... they'll call you afterwards, and put two and two together...

All's well that ends well... :) Ended up at the courier service's office an hour before they opened... had to wait outside, and ended up smoking 10 of the 12 Benson and Hedges I had in the pack, fingers trembling... finally they opened, and the ordeal (no, I guess I can't call this an ordeal either... ;) ) came to an end... five years multiple entry visa, the I-20 in an envelope that isn't to be opened... the visa says that I got the security clearance on the 17th, just six days after the interview! The delay after that was because of that deregistration thingie... Anyways, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who were of help to me, during the applications phase and then the visa phase... since this is the visa forum, thanks to all those who responded to the threads I started and the questions I asked... thanks in particular to Mystic, Thande, coolpaggy, NJIT, and last but not the least, Tino... I wish all of you the very best... may those who haven't got visas yet get them really quickly, and may we soon be attending the schools we want to... this sounds a bit like a farewell or goodbye, but it isn't... I hope I can now contribute to this wonderful forum and help all newbies with my experience... :)

Must be the fact that I had a thorough security check last year... it took 50 days... I guess this time they only had to check my record for the last year... Of course, this is *if* there's a visa in the passport... that guy really left me suspended between delight and despair... Good luck with your visa Mystic!

Thanks Tino, pharmpi... Just got a call from the courier service... they said my passport is back... I asked, does it have the visa in it... "No", came the reply... :( I said, does it require another interview? I thought, maybe they want me to clear it all up in person... "No, why would it have an interview date... you got the visa..." :) But you just said it had no visa, I said... "Oh, it has the visa"... More confusion... Then he gets off the line, speaks to the guy next to him... "Does it have the visa?"... I can hear the other guy saying "Yes, it has the visa"... so he says to me, "Yes, it has the visa, pick it up tomorrow before 1, tomorrow's a half day... goodbye"... For about a quarter of an hour I don't know what to do... then I call back... but they've left for the day... I suppose it has the visa, but I wish these things would just stop happening to me... some twisted version of Murphy's Law keeps springing up... until I see the damn thing, I'll be on tenderhooks... sleepless night on the cards tonight... I hope he was wrong the first time and right the second time... Confused: :( :) :( :)

They called yet again... this time the guy said, you've now been informed of what the proper procedure is... if you make the same mistake one more time, you won't be issued a visa in the future... So there we are... apparently this means its all okay this time... This thing ruined an entire week... :( ... Anyways, thanks for the support folks!

They called again... This time the guy said, you talked to my colleague the other day, do you mind explaining everything to me? I did, in detail... He asked me to email him the details as well, which I did... in the end I asked if there was a chance of the visa being refused... he said no, it shouldn't be... The more they call, and the more time they take, the more confident I become of getting the visa... a rejection would probably have been a lot quicker... Fingers crossed all the same!

You get the passport back after four days?!?!?! I can tell you that there are a lot of people here, myself included, who are now envious of you... ;) ...

Yeah, illogical, not to mention very stupid... but its a mistake I made... no excuses...

Why would I knowingly jeapordize my career, knowing that I'll be arriving again this fall, by not informing them? Had I known that I had to, I would have... now that I know, I would make it a point to inform them every time I fly out again... Of course, I can only do that if I get a visa this time and they don't send me back when I get there... Thats my "version of the story", as you put it, and the reasons I've given are the only ones I have for not informing them... can I ask what forces you to say that you don't believe me?

A page from a quick google search for the term: http://www.isss.umn.edu/INSGen/INSspecreg.html I definitely do remember the words "NSEERS" on my I-94... its just that I wasn't told to reappear upon departure, not when I left the airport, or when I was about to fly out of the US... Every website I go through says that its likely I'll be denied a new visa, and I'll be sent back even if I do have a visa... disconcerting... really disconcerting... I guess I'll just have to wait and see... all this effort to get into a good school and to get a visa, and everything looks like going down the drain because of a silly mistake...

Congratulations! Have you been approved for the visa or have you recieved the passport back with the visa? Also, for those of us who missed out on your earlier posts, please do comment on where you're from, which school you're headed for and what your major will be... Congrats once again!