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Q. Do I have to pay tuition before I come to LIT? A : You don¡¯t have to, but when applying for an F-1 Visa, this may help your chances in getting your Visa approved, especially if you are in a country whose Consulate issues a lot of Visa denials. The American Consulate may consider that since you have paid your tuition in advance you will be able to afford to come to the United States and pay for all expenses while you are studying here. In this sense, they may assume that you are not a risk to work in the United States. Q. Do I need health insurance? A : It is always a good idea to have medical insurance when you study abroad. You should arrange to get health (medical) insurance in your own country, or we can provide you with information on insurance our students can get here. Q. Is airport pickup available? A : Yes, we have a person who will come pick you up at the airport and drop you off at your destination. To request this service, you will need to fill out our Airport Request Form and pay the appropriate fee
VISA AND I-20 QUESTIONS Q. What is the application fee? A : ...The application fee is $100 and assures that your application is processed and valid. Once your application has been approved, we will send you an acceptance letter stating that you have met our requirements. If you have applied as an F-1 student, you will also receive the processed I-20 Form so that you may apply for an F-1 Student Visa. Q. When do I have to provide proof of sufficient funds? A : You should include proof of sufficient funds, or financial certification, only if you are applying as an F-1 student. You should be sure to send it to us when you submit the application for enrollment. We cannot approve your application without proof of sufficient funds. Acceptable proof would be a bank statement, a certified letter from your bank, or a letter of support from your parents or sponsor, as well as a letter from their bank stating that they will support your stay. Q. What is the difference between an "F-1" visa and an "M" visa? A : An "M" visa is what you would need to obtain if you are coming to the United States to study at a trade or vocational school. An example of a trade school would be cooking school, or flight school. LIT is not a trade school. To come study English at LIT, you would need to obtain an F-1 visa. Q. What's the best way to apply for a student visa? A : Most Consulates or Embassies allow you to mail in your application, have it brought by an agent, such as a travel agent, or let you apply in person. While there are no statistics on the rejection rate of the three methods (it depends on the country as well), the best way to apply, for obvious reasons, is in person. If a consular officer has doubts about your intentions or financial ability to study in the United States, they may be more receptive to you if you can explain to them in person the reasons you want to come and study English in the United States. Q. What is a Form I-20? A : A Form I-20 is what a school issues to a student so that they may apply for an F-1 Visa to come to the United States to study. A school authorized to issue the I-20 must make sure that the student has met certain financial and academic requirements. Without receiving an I-20 from a school, you will not be able to get the F-1 Visa. Q. What happens if my visa application is rejected? A : You can always reapply, though there may be certain restrictions to doing so. Sometimes it is a matter of providing more information to the Consulate, or reassuring the Consulate that you will be returning to your country after you complete your studies. It always best to apply for your F-1 Visa in person. Q. What's the difference between an F-1 and F-2 Visa? A : The F-1 Visa is for the student who is coming to the United States to study. The F-2 Visa is for the spouse or dependent children of an F-1 student. Q. What does "out of status" mean? A : "Out of status" refers to a student who has not met the requirements of the school that issued the student their I-20; such a requirement would be maintaining a certain attendance rate, for example. If a student is considered "out of status" upon attempting to transfer to another school, they would have to apply for reinstatement in order to attend the new school. To do this, they would need to get a Form I-20 from the new school and apply to regain or have their student status "reinstated". In this case, the student will have to reapply directly with the INS; there is a filing fee charge for this process. Q. What are the requirements to get an I-20 from LIT? A : To get an I-20 from LIT, you must submit a completed application to our campuses authorized to enroll F-1 students, along with the $100 application fee. You must also submit a letter of certification from a bank stating that you have sufficient funds to study while at LIT. Once the application is complete and has been approved, we can process your I-20 in 2-3 working days. You are also required to attend classes regularly and to make progress in your studies in order to remain in status Q. How long does it take to get an I-20 Certificate of Eligibility from LIT? A : Once we receive your application and application fee ($100), and your letter of financial certification that you have sufficient funds to meet your tuition and living expenses while at LIT Languages, we can process your application and, if your application has been approved, issue your I-20 in 2-3 working days. However, your application must be complete and processed and accepted before we can issue the I-20. Q. How long does it take to get an F-1 Visa? A : Some American Consulates approve visas in 2-3 days, some a week. It really depends on the city, country, and Visa restrictions of each American Consulate abroad. Again, you should plan to apply for your student F-1 Visa several weeks (4-6) before you come to study at LIT. Q. How long in advance should I apply to LIT to get my F-1 Visa? A : If you are living outside the United States, you should plan to apply to LIT at least 6 weeks in advance. You will need time to complete the application, and we will need time to process and approve it, as well as time to prepare and send you the I-20 Certificate of Eligibility. We have found that the world mail system is very unpredictable, so you should allow enough time to send and receive all materials. You will also need to allow enough time to go to the American Consulate in your country and for them to approve your application for an F-1 Visa. To speed the application process up, we recommend using our online application process. Q. How many classes do I need to take at LIT as an F-1 student? A : All F-1 students are required to any combination of classes that are in sum at least 3.5 hours of instruction per day to meet the F-1 requirement of a ¡°full-time¡± student in status. INS defines "full-time" study at a language school as at least 18 hours of instruction per week. Q. What does a Financial Certification consist of? A : Basically, the Financial Certification of sufficient funds is to guarantee that you will be able to pay your tuition and living expenses while studying at LIT. This certification may be in the form of a: 1. Current bank statement or letter from a bank indicating that you have at least $15,000.00 in your bank account(s). This is the 10-month average of what it would cost to live in Houston and study at LIT. Or you can provide us with: 2. A letter of support from your parent(s) or guardian, along with their bank statement. You will need to present this proof of financial support to the American Embassy or Consulate in your own country as well when you apply for the F-1 Visa. Some American Consulates may want to see that you can prove you have more funds before you enter the United States, so we strongly recommend that you be able to show the Consulate that you have at least $20,000 in your account(s). Q. What is an F-1 Visa? A : An F-1 Visa is a student visa. Anyone traveling to the United States to pursue academic study or English language instruction must obtain a student visa. You must apply for an F-1 Visa at the American Consulate in your native country. In order to apply for the F-1 Visa, you will need to have an I-20 from a school that has accepted you for study. Q. How do I transfer to LIT from another school? A : All you need to do is notify your previous school of your intent to transfer while you are still their student in good status. We will then send them our transfer form for you to come to our school. They approve the transfer and then you come to LIT. Q. Can you fax me the I-20 form? A : No. The I-20 form must be an original and should be sent to the student directly. LIT cannot process an I-20 to attend our school without a completed application, statement of sufficient funds, and paid application fee ($100). Once we have all received the application materials, we can process your application in 2-3 days. |
