Tips and Advice

If you violate F-1 visa law, it must be reported to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. To stay in status, you must:

• Make normal progress in your program of study. Register full-time every fall and spring semester
  • Attend classes everyday
  • Do your classwork so you can make good grades
  • Pay fees on time
    • If you don’t pay by the deadline, you cannot be allowed to attend classes- University Policy
  • If you are not in classes, you are not making normal progress.

• Report the address where you are living in the U.S. within 10 days of moving.
  • You can report your address change in the ISSS Portal

• If your address in your home country changes, report the new address directly to a Designated School Official (DSO/ International Student Adviser).

• Immigration Documents:
  • Your passport cannot expire while you are in the U.S.
  • Your I-20 cannot expire and you must be doing what is reported on your I-20
  • Print your I-94 arrival information from the U.S. Customs and Border protection Website (www.cbp.gov/i94) after every entry to the U.S.
  • You must have a valid F-1 Visa for entry to the U.S.
    • It is OK if your F-1 visa expires while you are in the U.S.

• Check your Georgia Southern e-mail every day.
  • It is the official means of communication with students
    • You are responsible for knowing information sent to your Georgia Southern University e-mail 

• ELP students in F-1 visa status can only work on campus
  • Look for Student Assistant jobs on the Student Employment Center website
  • Ask Career Services  to help you prepare a U.S. style resume and cover letter for the jobs you want to apply for.
  • If offered a job, as the hiring department to prepare a Social Security employment letter on their letter head.
    • Schedule a time to bring that letter to  Tanya Brakhage to have a Social Security number eligibility letter issued to take to SS with the employment letter

• If you want to apply for a Georgia Driver’s license
  • Take all your immigration documents to the Social Security Administration Office
    • Get a Social Security number denial letter
  • Review the non-citizen driver information posted on the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS) website.
    • Collect the required documentation
      • Residency documentation if living on-campus is
        • Letter form Housing
        • Letter from ELP Coordinator
      • Take all that documentation and immigration documents to DDS

• If you plan to travel outside the U.S. and to come back to the ELP, you must have a Designated School Official (DSO/International Student Adviser) sign your I-20 before you leave.
  • Office of International Programs and Services
    • Tanya Brakhage Veazey Hall, Room 2030  tbrakhage@georgiasouthern.edu
    • Appointments are encouraged to make sure we will be in when you come with your I-20.
      • You can check our Google calendars to see times that are already blocked out.

• If you plan to continue studying in the U.S. after the ELP,
  • In less than 60 days after the ELP classes end,
    • You must have an I-20 issued or
    • Your SEVIS record transferred to another school
  • If you want to continue study at Georgia Southern University
    • Submit your application early, and
    • Have proper financial documentation prepared
      • Refer to the future international student section of the Office of International Programs and Services website
      • Contact Tanya Brakhage if you have questions about the financial documentation requirements.
  • If you plan to study at a different school in the U.S.
    • Submit all application materials and financial documentation early!
    • You must be official admitted before your SEVIS record can be transferred to a different school
  • If you plan to stop studying in the U.S. and
    • You complete the highest level of the ELP and passed the exit exam,
      • You can stay in the U.S. for 60 days after classes end even if you will not start another program of study- this is the grace period
    • You don’t complete the highest level of the ELP and pass the exist exam.
      • You must make immediate arrangements to leave the U.S. There is no grace period if you don’t successfully complete the program

• If you have any questions regarding F-1 Visa status, contact Tanya Brakhage. 

Last updated: 3/30/2022