U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced new policy instruction that eliminates the need for people who have applied for a change of status (COS) to F-1 student to apply to change or prolong their non-immigrant status while their initial F-1 COS application is pending.
Under the previous policy, applicants needed to hold status up to 30 days before the application start date listed on their Form I-20, Certificate for Eligibility for Non-immigrant Student Status, which required them to file extensions, or an initial COS and subsequent extensions making sure that they would no longer have a “gap” in status.
To prevent a “gap” in status, USCIS will provide the change of status to F-1 effective the day we approve an applicant’s Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Non-immigrant Status. If we approve an application more than 30 days earlier than the student’s program start date, the student needs to make sure they no longer violate their F-1 status for the duration of that time. An instance of a violation would be engaging in employment, which includes on-campus employment, more than 30 days before the program start date as listed on their Form I-20.
The new policy will decrease workloads and expenses for both the candidates and USCIS. USCIS is in the process of revising the Form I-539 guidelines to reflect these changes.
