Not all students come to the United States on Student Visas. Many visitors come to the United States every year, and sometimes for political, business, or personal reasons their needs change while they are here. Although it would be desirable for them to return home and apply for the new status before re-entering the U.S., very often it would be unnecessarily expensive, time-consuming, or even dangerous to do so. Therefore the INS makes it possible for such people to apply to change their status while remaining in the U.S. The form used for this is Form I-539.

Sometimes people will come to the U.S. on a B-2 Visitor's visa and later decide they would like to attend school while they are here. Be careful. The official INS policy is that the B-2 category is not appropriate for full-time study. B-2 visitors to the United States for a short course of study are permitted to enroll in a language program of under 18 hours of course work per week. This does not include everyone on a B-2 visa. In practice, however, if someone is visiting the U.S. for only a few months anyway, many Immigration officials will consider that the individual will probably be leaving the U.S. before any proceedings could begin to revoke their B-2 visa and send them home. Basically, INS has more work to do than it can already, so such minor infractions might be overlooked, but there is no way to know how an individual INS inspector might treat a specific case.

At Capstone, however, we more often have applicants who wish to submit an I-539 application to change status, usually from a B-2 Visitor's visa to an F-1 Student visa. Applications to change from B-2 status to F-1 status are given special attention by INS. Therefore, there are several things prospective students can do to minimize the risk of their application being denied:

• Courts have found that enrolling in school or applying for a change in status only a short time after entry to the United States may demonstrate an individual's preconceived intent to be a student and that the individual did not, in fact, truthfully enter the country as a visitor. If INS believe this to be the case, an application to change status will be denied. To protect against this happening, even if a student changes his/her mind shortly after entering the U.S. DO NOT enroll in a school or apply to change status too quickly after entering the U.S. At most, enroll in school only part-time, and delay an application to change status until only a few weeks before the visitor's visa expires.

  If the INS believes that an applicant's intention to study arose after entry in B-2 status, it will usually approve a change from B-2 to F-1. However, if INS has any doubt, it will often request further evidence, either from the student or from the school, as to the dates the student first contacted the school, applied to the school, and was accepted to the school, to determine whether a preconceived intent to study existed. Individuals who enter the United States in B-2 status and who have either already applied to schools or are carrying school records with them and applying for a status change shortly after entry will be denied a change to F-1 status.
  
  

• A student who has a "prospective student" endorsement or annotation on his/her B-2 visa should routinely be able to obtain a change to F-1 status. If an individual planning to visit the United States thinks there is any chance he/she might want to attend school in the U.S., when applying for a Visitor's visa a "prospective student" endorsement should be requested. This would be noted directly on the visa, so that if the individual does apply for a change in status there is little chance that Immigration might deny the request . . . at least, not for "preconceived intent" to attend school.

There are many reasons for requesting a "prospective student" endorsement. The most obvious is that locating the best school from thousands of miles away can be difficult; "prospective student" visitors can visit different schools to find the one that best meets his/her needs and interests. Sometimes, however, as fair as the United States might like to be, because many clerical positions in embassies and consulates are held by citizens of the host country, there are cultural or political obstacles that make it impossible to get a student visa there. By requesting a Visitor's visa (with a "prospective student" endorsement, of course) one might deal with different staff members with less reason to act prejudicially.

Capstone STRONGLY recommends that prospective B-2 visitors to the U.S. who have any thought that they might like to attend school here request a "prospective student" annotation at the time they apply for their Visitor's visa.

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