F-1 Visa Renewal Doubts

[obiwankenobi]

Hello,

I am a PhD student and am on a F1 Visa since August 2011. The duration of the course on my i20 is 84 months and so my i20 is valid. However my passport expires in Jun 2016. I had a question on renewal of the Visa. Should I go and renew my Visa before June 2016 or can I do it even after that as my I20 is valid. Also given the fact that I am still funded as a PhD student, what are the documents that I would require? Do I require documents to show finances again? Also do I qualify for a drop box? I did look it up on the ustravel website and it says I qualify, but how long does this dropbox procedure generally take. Any pointers and help on this is appreciated! Thanks a lot!

[pavan2016]

Hello,

I am a PhD student and am on a F1 Visa since August 2011. The duration of the course on my i20 is 84 months and so my i20 is valid. However my passport expires in Jun 2016. I had a question on renewal of the Visa. Should I go and renew my Visa before June 2016 or can I do it even after that as my I20 is valid. Also given the fact that I am still funded as a PhD student, what are the documents that I would require? Do I require documents to show finances again? Also do I qualify for a drop box? I did look it up on the ustravel website and it says I qualify, but how long does this dropbox procedure generally take. Any pointers and help on this is appreciated! Thanks a lot!

First renew your Passport. you can do that from US itself. You cannot go to Visa with a passport that expires within 6 months.
Once you renew your passport. You can apply for Visa via Dropbox. Time for dropbox depends upon case and should be anywhere from 20 to 60 days. However I think your case should be straight forward.