Student Visa Economic Hardship?

[afrenchprincess1 0]

I am here on a student visa. I am here for graduate studies at the university. I have attended classes for a year so far. I am doing CPT part time job at this time. However at the end of the last semester I could not pay my fees to school and I owe then $6,000 for my last semester. I will not have enough to pay them because they person that was helping me pay my school bills and tuition can not any longer b/c they are sick and bed ridden. And I do not make enough to pay the past due tuition myself. I was told by a friend that I can do an Economic Hardship application which would allow me to work full time therefore I could pay off my school debt and then return to school. However, I am seeing in some paper work that you would have to be enrolled to be elgibile for the Economic Hardship and that is not possible since I owe money and I am applying to have a one year or half year deferrement because of this. I have my letters and things in order before I go to International Students Office. I am just looking to be fully prepared before I go to the office with any questions or concerns. How can I best present my case to get the ecomonic hardship? And what do you do when you owe and can no longer pay your school fee's while here on a student visa? I was also told about doing an OPT job but I was advised that I needed to graduate before applying for that.

[canadian_wife 1,823]

Have you spoken to the DSO at your school? They can help you with the paperwork

The thing you'll have to overcome is the fact you presented your case that you COULD pay for school. You'll need a compelling argument as to why this is no longer the case. I suggest you have doctor's documentation to show your sponsor cannot pay for your school any longer.

You do not need (or at least was the case a few years ago when I did OPT) to be a graduate to get OPT.

Good luck

[gina_raluca 14]

You do not need (or at least was the case a few years ago when I did OPT) to be a graduate to get OPT.

Good luck

I agree. You do not have to graduate to be eligible for OPT. Some students complete the OPT before graduating (like I did), while others complete the training after their graduation.

OP: I hope you will be able to enlist the International Student Office's help with submitting your economic hardship application...

[Harsh_77 718]

You can check with your schools International advisor, but if you are doing CPT right now then those months are deducted from your OPT period.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

Yes you can give a letter of hardship and in certain condition they do lift the restriction and you are eligible to work off the campus for 40 hrs.

Check with your school, best bet is take a appointment with international advisor and explain him the situation and they can guide you best.

[gina_raluca 14]

You can check with your schools International advisor, but if you are doing CPT right now then those months are deducted from your OPT period.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

A student is eligible for both CPT and OPT as long as the CPT program was less than 365 days.

[engineer21 51]

I am here on a student visa. I am here for graduate studies at the university. I have attended classes for a year so far. I am doing CPT part time job at this time. However at the end of the last semester I could not pay my fees to school and I owe then $6,000 for my last semester. I will not have enough to pay them because they person that was helping me pay my school bills and tuition can not any longer b/c they are sick and bed ridden. And I do not make enough to pay the past due tuition myself. I was told by a friend that I can do an Economic Hardship application which would allow me to work full time therefore I could pay off my school debt and then return to school. However, I am seeing in some paper work that you would have to be enrolled to be elgibile for the Economic Hardship and that is not possible since I owe money and I am applying to have a one year or half year deferrement because of this. I have my letters and things in order before I go to International Students Office. I am just looking to be fully prepared before I go to the office with any questions or concerns. How can I best present my case to get the ecomonic hardship? And what do you do when you owe and can no longer pay your school fee's while here on a student visa? I was also told about doing an OPT job but I was advised that I needed to graduate before applying for that.

I owed a lot of tuition money from my undergraduate years for quite a while because of essentially the same thing. My mom ended up needing to care for/pay medical bills for my sick grandmother and there wasn't anymore extra funds for me. I was lucky enough that the people at my school's financial aid dept directed me to the right person to talk to: the university's comptroller. He (the comptroller) has the ability to remove holds on anybody's account and let them register for classes for the upcoming semester, even though there is a past due balance. I had to fill out a statement saying that I was going to work out a way to pay off the balance from my undergrad studies but needed more time. In return, they let me continue going to grad school. I didn't get my undergrad diploma from them for a looooong time.

I can only work part time on campus, which is just enough to live on so eventually the financial aid department helped me fill out a private student loan (I used citizens bank). The financial aid lady made sure to verify the requested loan amount so that the past due balance could be taken care of. Not looking forward to starting the payments once I graduate. But you do what you have to do.

Most people nowadays have student loans so.. I figured I'll be OK. Once that loan was disbursed, I was finally able to pick up my undergrad diploma.. And this was literally just a few months ago.

So for a while I was in your same boat! Every semester I had to go back to that comptroller's office and ask him to remove my hold so I can register for classes one more time. Everytime he checked to make sure I had been trying to make payments here and there.

I don't know how easy it will be for you to continue paying your tuition even if you get the hardship aproved and are able to work full time right now. I tried to do the math one time and at least for my school with international student rate, there was no way I could afford it just by working on my own.

Good luck!!

[canadian_wife 1,823]

miminom - do you have a question we can help you with? What visa are you trying to 'arrange'?