H4 Student to F1 conversion, Community college option

A

akhilnigs

New Member
Hi,
I am working in the US on a H1b visa for 7 years. My daughter (H4 visa) has been studying in the US for 5 years and planning to attend college for undergrad STEM course next year. I want her to study on a H4 visa as much as possible to avoid international fee. My questions:
a) At the latest, in which year of college should I start the process to convert her status from H4 to F1?
b) In order to save on Tuition Fee, would it be a good idea to let her attend a Community College during the first 1 or 2 years before starting with the University? Could this impact her F1 approval or F1 Visa stamping?

Please provide your suggestions.

Thanks!
Akhil
 
By “international“ fee I assume you mean out of state costs, as there is usually no or not much difference in fees between out of state and international. So what you really want, is to establish residency in the state you’re in to qualify for in-state tuition. This varies from state to state and some (I think most) will allow it for h4 visa holders if the required period of residence has been met, but others won’t, so the first step is to check that. The next step is to check whether she will be eligible to remain on instate tuition status if /when she has to change to F1 -my understanding is that in most cases she won’t be.
a) this is not dependent on the year of college but her age. She ages out of H4 at age 21. So you would want her to have changed to F1 before she turns 21 to allow her to stay in the US.
b) shouldn’t be an issue, it’s pretty common for students to start at a community college and transfer to a 4-year college later, often for cost reasons. Be sure you and she understand how your local CC’s articulate to the 4-year colleges she would be interested in transferring to, to ensure she has the correct credits.
 
Thanks Susie for the quick and very detailed explanation.
about point b), my main concern is about F1 approval and stamping when she visits India. I KNOW it's pretty common for GC or Citizen to attend Community college before going to University. But I am not sure if it could cause any troubles in F1 stamping when she visits India after F1 conversion. Especially, since F1 screening would be done more stringently under new administration. Appreciate if you could share your experience if any.
 
hard to answer, many people get F1 to study at CC so I don’t think that’s really a problem. I think the bigger problem if she needs F1 stamping in India is overcoming presumption of immigrant intent - seeing she has already lived in the US so long and the rest of her immediate family is (I presume) in the US too.
 
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