H4 to F1

[virjita]

Hi
I am in US on H4 visa and wanted to join MS in spring 2003. I had the following questions

1. Is it advisable to join graduate school on H4 or should I go in for a change of status from H4 to F1.
2. If I change my status to F1, will I have a difficulty in getting my visa stamped?
3. Or should I go back to my home country before joining grad school and try to obtain an F1 visa from there..

Please help!!

[punitp]

hi ,

u dont need to go back to your home country for F1 stamping. u should consider following things for deciding H4 or F1 ( on any visa u can study in US ).

H4 - advantages

1. u dont need to take the course full time.
2. if u join a community or state collage, u pay fees of a resident if u are staying in that state for more then a year.

- disadvantages

1. u can take a part time job in collage or anywhere
2. u dont get the 1 year paid training after complition of course.
3. u are depandant on somes visa so if H1 losses job u too are out of status.
4. to transfer from H4 to H1 after completion of course needs to do all the basic processes, which can be easy for employer if u are on F1 and can get a work authrisation with help of collage . ( well my wife has H4 and we are stuck here, she has GPA of 3.9+ but companies says yes to sponsor H1 only if we can manage work authrisation through collage which is not possible in our case )

F1 - well is opposite of what is there above ...

only thing is now a days they ask for lot of docs for issuing F1 ( atleast in our case they needed all the proof of residance in US, motivation of going back to india and property and other stuff in india, residence proof in inida ..etc )