B2 to F1

[roychoudhury@houston]

I am posting it on behalf of my friend. My friend was in US on H4 during 2005-2009 when they applied for GC. Because of some unfortunate event she had to leave in a huff and her I-485 adjustment of status got denied as USCIS couldn't reach her. She came back on Visitor's visa last year and got all these info via FOIA. Now she has applied for F1 Visa following all Sevis regulations. USCIS got her application on 04/25 and she is trying to enroll for the summer classes in the University that processed her I-20. Her Visitor's Visa expires on 06/08. What are the chances that the F1 will be approved. The International admission department scared her a bit saying since she has a history that she tried to immigrate it will be difficult to get the F1. Do anyone in this forum has faced similar situation and can advice

[newacct]

I am posting it on behalf of my friend. My friend was in US on H4 during 2005-2009 when they applied for GC. Because of some unfortunate event she had to leave in a huff and her I-485 adjustment of status got denied as USCIS couldn't reach her. She came back on Visitor's visa last year and got all these info via FOIA. Now she has applied for F1 Visa following all Sevis regulations. USCIS got her application on 04/25 and she is trying to enroll for the summer classes in the University that processed her I-20. Her Visitor's Visa expires on 06/08. What are the chances that the F1 will be approved. The International admission department scared her a bit saying since she has a history that she tried to immigrate it will be difficult to get the F1. Do anyone in this forum has faced similar situation and can advice

A B2 to F1 change of status is not advisable. Change of status applications take at least 3-5 months to process these days. She can only apply at most 30 days before the start of her program, which will mean that she will have to miss the start of her classes for a few months as it is pending and she is not allowed to study. Because she missed the start of her classes, the school will update her SEVIS start date to later, which may cause her change of status to be denied because she may have already been out of B2 status 30 days before that start date. It may have been possible to fix that by applying for a B2 extension of status before applying for the F1 change of status, so that if the B2 extension of status is approved, it will provide more time on B2 status for the F1 change of status to complete, but that's a lot of added complication and cost, and it may be too late to do now.

It would just be better and faster for her to leave and get an F1 visa instead.

[roychoudhury@houston]

A B2 to F1 change of status is not advisable. Change of status applications take at least 3-5 months to process these days. She can only apply at most 30 days before the start of her program, which will mean that she will have to miss the start of her classes for a few months as it is pending and she is not allowed to study. Because she missed the start of her classes, the school will update her SEVIS start date to later, which may cause her change of status to be denied because she may have already been out of B2 status 30 days before that start date. It may have been possible to fix that by applying for a B2 extension of status before applying for the F1 change of status, so that if the B2 extension of status is approved, it will provide more time on B2 status for the F1 change of status to complete, but that's a lot of added complication and cost, and it may be too late to do now.

It would just be better and faster for her to leave and get an F1 visa instead.

Thanks for the detailed reply.. really appreciate that. Her school gave a tentative start date of 2nd June 2017. Remember her B2 Visa expires on June 8th. And the USCIS receipt date is April 25th. One other factor that I think might affect is that she has a 14 year old son who is applying for F2 VISA along with her. She is already in this country back to back on B2 with a 10-15 day gap in between - so for sure her application for B2 extension might have been denied. So with that being said are you suggesting that there is very little chance for F1 approval. And how long does it take for USCIS to decide if they want to deny the application?
Thanks in advance