Departing After You Complete Your Program

F-1 students have 60 days to depart the U.S. upon program completion and J-1 students have 30 days. Options to extend your stay include:

• Apply for Post-Completion Optional Practical Training (OPT) work authorization
  • Optional Practical Training (OPT) is a benefit of F-1 visa status that allows international students to work temporarily in the United States in their field of study. Students can apply for up to 12 months of OPT after completing their academic studies, and may be eligible for a STEM extension if their major is in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field. USCIS should receive your OPT application within 60 days after the program end date.
• Transfer to another school/program
  • You can transfer to another school or program after graduation. You will need to contact ISS to complete a transfer out form and return it to our office along with your admissions letter. You will need to work with your new school to get your new I-20 and renew your visa if necessary.
• Change your education level (example: bachelor’s to master’s)
  • If you decide to stay in St. Edward’s university to pursue another program, please inform ISS so we can issue you a new I-20.
• Apply to change to another visa status
  • If you plan to change visa status, we highly recommend you contact an immigration attorney to guide you through the process.

Plan ahead and contact ISS if you wish to pursue any of these options.

The Journey Home

If you decide to return home, one generally is aware of the possibility of a reverse cultural shock, but can you really prepare for it? Emotions may go wild even before finding oneself in this weird situation of leaving the new home to go back to the old home. Happiness and sadness, all mixed up. Maybe certain regrets or relief, probably pride, excitement and thankfulness, occasionally anxiety and insecurity. Sound familiar? Of course! Because you probably had a lot of these feelings when you you came to the United States, remember? Well then this should not come as a surprise because what lies ahead of you is yet another journey. Try to consider this and prepare yourself actively when you pack up your life abroad to return to your country. Here you can find two attachments. The first one are slides about re-entry & re-integration after an experience abroad. The second attachment includes a checklist to prepare you for departure and returning home tips.

The Journey Home.pptx

Pre-Departure and Returning Home Tips.pdf