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Hi guys. I am wondering if I need to reapply for a new visa in my case. My current visa is valid from Jan 2016 to Jan 2021. It is multiple entries.
I graduated as an undergraduate in May last year, and got into OPT successfully. I later left US to my home country as part of employment on Feb 1st this year. I also applied to multiple graduate programs while working and got some offers (all from programs at different universities from the one I graduated). I finally decided to accept one of the offers at late May, so I started transferring my record from the previous university to this one I plan to go. The transfer also automatically stops my OPT status and I have stopped working accordingly - pretty sure I didn't violate OPT rules. After the long process I just got the new I-20 with same SEVIS number yesterday, and I plan to arrive at August 13th to start the new program.
Everything seems smooth when I saw this five-month-rule on SEVIS record. Strictly speaking I left US on Feb 1st (I still am not at US at this moment) and will return at August 13th, which is definitely more than 5 months. Will this also fall under the rule and invalidates my visa? I saw some posts say that as long as SEVIS number is the same and the visa as well as passport is valid, it's going to be fine. I hope this is true.
The thing that really triggers the worry is that my DSO wants me to confirm with local consulate - turns out she is not quite sure about the situation either. While I will keep contacting the consulate I want to see if anyone has got into same situation before or if someone can offer some insights. It is almost late July and would be extremely tight schedule if I start the visa application from now, definitely not what I expect
.
Thanks in advance for any opinion.
I graduated as an undergraduate in May last year, and got into OPT successfully. I later left US to my home country as part of employment on Feb 1st this year. I also applied to multiple graduate programs while working and got some offers (all from programs at different universities from the one I graduated). I finally decided to accept one of the offers at late May, so I started transferring my record from the previous university to this one I plan to go. The transfer also automatically stops my OPT status and I have stopped working accordingly - pretty sure I didn't violate OPT rules. After the long process I just got the new I-20 with same SEVIS number yesterday, and I plan to arrive at August 13th to start the new program.
Everything seems smooth when I saw this five-month-rule on SEVIS record. Strictly speaking I left US on Feb 1st (I still am not at US at this moment) and will return at August 13th, which is definitely more than 5 months. Will this also fall under the rule and invalidates my visa? I saw some posts say that as long as SEVIS number is the same and the visa as well as passport is valid, it's going to be fine. I hope this is true.
The thing that really triggers the worry is that my DSO wants me to confirm with local consulate - turns out she is not quite sure about the situation either. While I will keep contacting the consulate I want to see if anyone has got into same situation before or if someone can offer some insights. It is almost late July and would be extremely tight schedule if I start the visa application from now, definitely not what I expect
.Thanks in advance for any opinion.
