cafueles

This was a joint statement by International Office and the school's Provost. Allow me to apologise, but I don't see how your comment is helpful or you can be better acquainted with the matter than the people I've been speaking with. Given the high level of anxiety admitted students are experiencing right now, I believe sticking to the facts and trying not to spread unsubstantiated rumours to be of the utmost importance. I think this is especially true if you're not in the same position as we are. I will continue to post on this thread only as facts, i.e., communications from both my school and my local embassy, evolve.

This is great! I really hope that is the case. That sounds extremely harsh, I'm assuming that's for a TA. May I suggest talking directly to your advisor if you haven't done that already? Everybody at IU was super helpful and, while they guaranteed my stipend starting Spring 2021, my advisor is independently also keeping my stipend through Fall 2020, even if I arrive late. I'm hoping you could tell them this is becoming a common practice amidst this chaos so they'll reconsider it.

Yes, we're less than 60 days away. I prefer not to disclose that info.

Unfortunately, my request was denied. I received the following message: I should add that the city this Embassy is in is in partial lockdown. Therefore, don't take this response as gospel if your local embassy is under different circumstances. I also found it interesting that they told me not to resubmit any requests more than 20 days prior my travel date while every other website says there can only be a single request.

Today I was encouraged by International Students Services to apply for an expedite appointment with my embassy. I called beforehand to the visa call center in order to confirm I'm eligible and they told me I am indeed under point c. I am now applying for an expedite appointment, I'll let you know how it goes.

For some reason, these shown countries are redirected to this website https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-us/countries_list/niv instead of the one you provided. Once there, I have submitted my DS-160 and was able to make an appointment for September. It all works as if everything was normal but there were no available dates until Sep, I even got a confirmation e-mail.

I've received my I-20 about two months after admission. I would also recommend you to check with the international student's office. In any case, I wouldn't worry much since visa services are suspended all over the globe. My I-20 has been sitting since the day it arrived.

I haven't, I'm worried I'll need to defer to the Spring semester and therefore I'll need a new I-20 (I am not sure if the SEVIS ID will still be the same, does anybody know?). I was planning on doing it as soon as the consulates open since I will then have a good idea whether I'll be able to finish the whole process by Fall.

Hi there! I understand your doubts, since I've experienced something similar myself. I wanted to reassure you that most universities in the US will allow you to get a MS degree by choosing your courses with that objective in mind and getting the required credits. Also, don't underestimate your ability to negotiate with your advisor and take classes that will result interesting for you. A researcher may have a broad spectrum of projects to work on and you can choose the parts most suited to you.

At least at my Uni, we've been told that that's not possible, there are regulations that prohibit them from depositing in a non-US account and they are not willing to pay for off-campus work. Regarding financials in general, if we arrive late, that wouldn't be a problem although we'll have to discuss the stipend with our advisor, given that they have reassign that money to pay for other stuff. However, if we arrive in fall 2021, that's another fiscal year and therefore we wouldn't have neither the stipend nor the tuition remission available. We would need to apply again for those, knowing that universities' budgets will be under financial strain because of the pandemic.

Update: My university has just started shipping I-20s. In any case, we're warned that US consulates are still closed so we'll most likely experience difficulties when submitting for an appointment. As ever, the basic principle is "we're still hoping you could join us for fall".

Hi Alain! We're all waiting, indeed. According to the weekly webinars we hold with University's authorities, though, classes will be hybrid. This means that the same course will most likely be taught online as well as in person. Therefore, in case we don't arrive to the US in time, we will still be able to join the classes we've been following online. Given that I took a gap year as well, I have no interest in deferring. However, I understand it is something that may happen if the visa situation doesn't move in the near term. At my university, we can wait until August 1st before deciding whether to defer. I have been reading updates from a handful of schools and some of them are having full in person semesters, others full online, and others hybrid ones. I don't believe any of them will actually delay their start date. I hope we remain patient during these times (: Best of luck. P.S.: I just remembered the admissions office team at my U mentioned that there will be flexibility regarding arrival dates to the US, given the situation. I guess that means that missing a week or two of classes is possible.