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Reinstatement of F1 Status. What Does It Take?
Students from all over the world come to the United States to study. A F1 student who fails to maintain their status can fall out of status. Some ways that a student can violate the terms of theF1 are not to take complete course of study, failing to notify the school about their arrival or change of address or forgetting to renew their passport. If you have fallen out of F-1 status, but seek to resume your studies then you can apply for reinstatement. However there is a five month deadline by which you need to file for reinstatement. One cannot apply for reinstatement if they have had unauthorized work.
One needs to establish the following:
That the ability to apply for reinstatement was not within your control such as a serious injury or illness, some disaster, and or a mistake by the DSO OR was because of a reduction in course work not within your control and that the failure to secure reinstatement would result in extreme hardship.
- USCIS Form I-539
- A check for the appropriate fee of $370
- Proof of why you qualify for reinstatement
- A newly issue I-20 form from your school
- copy of old I-20
- copy of financial support papers to prove that you can pay for your continued schooling
- copy of the valid passport photo page as well as the page showing your latest visa entry stamp
- copy of Form I-94 Arrival & Departure Record
- copy of the updated transcript and upcoming course registration
The adjudication of these petitions can take several months. Please refer to the USCIS processing website to check on current processing times.
Kasturi Law, LLC has experience handling reinstatement cases and has been successful in securing approval. Please contact us to further discuss your case with Kasturi Law, LLC.