Current Au pair J1 wants to study in the US

[Christine.M 0]

Hello I'm a current Au pair from Germany and after my year I would like to study here in the US. My question is if somebody needs to sponsor me or I can study here if I just move together with my boyfriend who lives in Virginia ? Could he sponsor me ? He is in the military and after my college we want also get married. And an other important question is: Which possibilities do I have to pay for my college ?

Thanks so much in advance.

Christine

[Boiler 45,516]

F 1 is a student visa.

Obviously not cheap, the University will be able to advise on costs.

You do not need a sponsor, just show that you have sufficient funds.

A non immigrant visa so a BF paying might not help.

[Unidentified 2,930]

Hello I'm a current Au pair from Germany and after my year I would like to study here in the US. My question is if somebody needs to sponsor me or I can study here if I just move together with my boyfriend who lives in Virginia ? Could he sponsor me ? He is in the military and after my college we want also get married. And an other important question is: Which possibilities do I have to pay for my college ?

Thanks so much in advance.

Christine

First off you need to be accepted by a college, you can't just move to the US and start studying. I am not familiar with the process of switching from Au Pair to student while still in the US, I believe since you won't actually get a proper visa in your passport you won't be able to travel home to Germany. So if you're planning on going home I would recommend going to Germany to do the visa process.

Which possibilities you have to pay for college depends on your own funds with the help of the sponsor or if someone decides to pay for you. As an F1 student you can forget about financial aid from the US but you can apply for scholarships and grants. You should check if you can get financial aid or similar from Germany.

Studying in America is not cheap, it's really freaking expensive. I kind of went a similar way like you, I did 2 years as an au pair met my now husband at the end of my 1st au pair year and then switched to an F1 for a year to see where our relationship was going. I found a company in Sweden that offered a one year of college education at a Community College where I live here in the US. I ended up borrowing some money from my mother so I could show that I had all the money I needed on my account and I also used her as my sponsor to show that she'd backed me up if something happened. I'm pretty confident that you'll increase your chances of getting an F1 if you can show that you yourself has all the funds or most of the funds necessary for tuition and general living costs and are not super dependent on anyone else to pay for you. If you use your boyfriend as a sponsor the consular officer might feel it's risky as you could break up during that time. Who will pay for you then?

Living with your boyfriend during your studies are fine, I was honest about this during the visa interview and only question they had about it was if we were planning on getting married and I said we're not planning anything. We waited and went the K1 route.