Hello All,
I was working for a foreign embassy here in Wash dc since Sept. 1998. I started going to university for since jan 2000. In may 2002, I resigned my post and attended full time school.
I wanted to chage my status to f1, so i had to make the embassy send my i-566 to the state dept. once they did that, they received it back in june with a denial stating they had forgotten to send in my resignation notice.
So i told them to do so and refile the application. I was told all was done in July of 02. I waited & waited. At last I had waited about 5 months and still not gotten anything. In the mean time I kept calling the embassy to find out what was going on. they assured me everything was fine and it was just taking some time. Then when i called the state dept they said they did not have my i-566. I know i should have probably done it earlier but i relied on the embassy.
Again I made them file I566 in Jan and on Feb 03, I got a response back saying "not recommended for change" reason: "out of status". It said that since May 17, 02 I was out of status and I had failed to file properly.
Now my quesitons is, what exactly can I do now? It seems I've stayed in the US illegally for 10 months & I cant leave before May when I'll have completed my degree.
If I get a I-20 for a graduate program will I be issued a visa? or will my staying illegally be held against me. I heard somewhere that once you stay out of status you cant apply for visa for 10 years. Also, if I can find a sponsor for GC, can I apply? Or does getting married to a US citizen help me at all or make it worse?
I'm very ill informed about the immigration process. Any suggestions & comments would be helpfu.
I was working for a foreign embassy here in Wash dc since Sept. 1998. I started going to university for since jan 2000. In may 2002, I resigned my post and attended full time school.
I wanted to chage my status to f1, so i had to make the embassy send my i-566 to the state dept. once they did that, they received it back in june with a denial stating they had forgotten to send in my resignation notice.
So i told them to do so and refile the application. I was told all was done in July of 02. I waited & waited. At last I had waited about 5 months and still not gotten anything. In the mean time I kept calling the embassy to find out what was going on. they assured me everything was fine and it was just taking some time. Then when i called the state dept they said they did not have my i-566. I know i should have probably done it earlier but i relied on the embassy.
Again I made them file I566 in Jan and on Feb 03, I got a response back saying "not recommended for change" reason: "out of status". It said that since May 17, 02 I was out of status and I had failed to file properly.
Now my quesitons is, what exactly can I do now? It seems I've stayed in the US illegally for 10 months & I cant leave before May when I'll have completed my degree.
If I get a I-20 for a graduate program will I be issued a visa? or will my staying illegally be held against me. I heard somewhere that once you stay out of status you cant apply for visa for 10 years. Also, if I can find a sponsor for GC, can I apply? Or does getting married to a US citizen help me at all or make it worse?
I'm very ill informed about the immigration process. Any suggestions & comments would be helpfu.