i20 Renewed, valid F1 (but almost an year break on F1)

[sun123]

Hi folks,

My brother has a valid F1 visa until 2013 Jan. In 2011 July, his I-20 expired with 1 course pending. His university did not renew his i-20 at that time because they said that the time for renewal has lapsed. He has been back in India since (i.e. July 15 2011) and has been trying to get his i-20 renewed so that he could complete his only pending course and obtain his MS degree. Finally the university said they will issue him an i-20 for 2012 August( fall admissions) . We have not been getting clear answers for the following question.

1) Should he go for a visa stamping again once a new i-20 has been issued even though he is going back to the same college? ( Even if he reaches US before July 15 2011?, i.e before an year since he left).

2) What is the case, if he decides to leave to US after July 15 2011?

We would appreciate your help on this.

Thanks a lot.

[goorange2010]

hi, he doesn't need to stamp visa. However, upon arrival to US, he needs to clarify the things with immigration officer. If he is lucky, officer will let him in because he has only 1 class left plus he spend more than 3 quarter outside us while on f1 which automatically terminate his status.
best of luck though.

[sun123]

Thanks goorange2010.

i guess afterall he is going to re apply for the visa. We have gone through some information on travel.gov site, and like you said, it states that if he is out of US for more than 5 months , the officer has the authority to terminate his status. So i dont think we would want to take a chance with that.

Appreciate your answer and thanks for the wishes.

Cheers.