Niece wants to attend senior year high school in U.S.

[Kim and Jermaine 28]

My niece is 16 and finished high school one year early in Jamaica. Shes interested in coming stay with my family here in the U.S. to do what would be considered here, her senior year. She has been approved for a visitors Visa and has traveled once during last year to stay a time with family here in U.S. 

What steps does she need to take to apply for a student Visa? I'm confused on how exactly to go about it because school has already started here and she has just brought this up to us. She's applying to a community college in Jamaica but otherwise has no schooling left as a youth in Jamaica. She'll be 17 in December. Would she even be able to take this year to go through the application process and then (if approved) enter U.S. high school as a senior next fall?

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

  To attend school in the US you need to have a school that can issue an  i 20 and you must pay for it ,  If she plans on attending a public school  you must pay for it ( the government pays for citizens and immigrants )   You will probably not find a public school that issues the form and private schools will be expensive. ( they can run 40 k a year around here ) 

[canadian_wife 1,822]

Have you looked in to the school that you would want her to attend?  Perhaps start there and see what they would issue, if it is not the required documents that NigeriaorBust says, then you would probably need to look at other schools and what they issue.

 

Good luck 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

It’s going to be expensive, because either you pay private school fees or you pay back the subsidy for public schools.  She’d need to show that she’s paid the fees and can support herself in the US (or that you guys undertake to support her living expenses while here). Visa details here:

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/study/student-visa/foreign-students-in-public-schools.html

 

key extracts:

• Secondary school attendance is limited to twelve months.
• F-1 secondary school students are required to pay the school the full cost of education by repaying the school system for the full, unsubsidized, per capita cost of providing the education to him or her
• Foreign students who want to attend public secondary school (high school) must pay the full cost of education. This amount is listed under "tuition" on the student's Form I-20. If the Form I-20 does not include the cost of tuition, the student must have a notarized statement, signed by the designated school official (DSO) who signed the Form I-20, stating the full cost of tuition and that the student paid the tuition in full. The full, unsubsidized per capita (for each student) cost of education is the cost of providing education to each student in the school district where the public school is located. Costs normally range between $3,000 and $10,000. The student secondary school cost reimbursement requirement is mandatory and school systems cannot waive the reimbursement requirement.
• Foreign students may come to the United States to live with U.S. citizen relatives while attending public school. The child is limited to twelve months of study in secondary school (high school). The child may not study in elementary school. It should be noted however, that the student's status as a resident of the school district and the fact that the U.S. citizen has paid local property/school taxes is irrelevant and does not fulfill the cost reimbursement requirement of Section 214(m) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Therefore, the full tuition costs must be paid to the school or school district.

 

This is all an entirely different issue from whether any school would be happy to accept someone that has already not only completed high school but done some community college already. I presume she realizes that if she does she won’t have a US high school diploma at the end of it either.

Edited September 9, 2018 by SusieQQQ

[Kim and Jermaine 28]

On 9/9/2018 at 5:48 AM, canadian_wife said:

 

 

On 9/9/2018 at 5:48 AM, canadian_wife said:

Have you looked in to the school that you would want her to attend?  Perhaps start there and see what they would issue, if it is not the required documents that NigeriaorBust says, then you would probably need to look at other schools and what they issue.

 

Good luck 

 

On 9/9/2018 at 10:27 AM, SusieQQQ said:

It’s going to be expensive, because either you pay private school fees or you pay back the subsidy for public schools.  She’d need to show that she’s paid the fees and can support herself in the US (or that you guys undertake to support her living expenses while here). Visa details here:

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/study/student-visa/foreign-students-in-public-schools.html

 

key extracts:

• Secondary school attendance is limited to twelve months.
• F-1 secondary school students are required to pay the school the full cost of education by repaying the school system for the full, unsubsidized, per capita cost of providing the education to him or her
• Foreign students who want to attend public secondary school (high school) must pay the full cost of education. This amount is listed under "tuition" on the student's Form I-20. If the Form I-20 does not include the cost of tuition, the student must have a notarized statement, signed by the designated school official (DSO) who signed the Form I-20, stating the full cost of tuition and that the student paid the tuition in full. The full, unsubsidized per capita (for each student) cost of education is the cost of providing education to each student in the school district where the public school is located. Costs normally range between $3,000 and $10,000. The student secondary school cost reimbursement requirement is mandatory and school systems cannot waive the reimbursement requirement.
• Foreign students may come to the United States to live with U.S. citizen relatives while attending public school. The child is limited to twelve months of study in secondary school (high school). The child may not study in elementary school. It should be noted however, that the student's status as a resident of the school district and the fact that the U.S. citizen has paid local property/school taxes is irrelevant and does not fulfill the cost reimbursement requirement of Section 214(m) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Therefore, the full tuition costs must be paid to the school or school district.

 

This is all an entirely different issue from whether any school would be happy to accept someone that has already not only completed high school but done some community college already. I presume she realizes that if she does she won’t have a US high school diploma at the end of it either.

Thank you guys, I got the same results and info during my search and see now that it's not something that we are willing to take on. 

Edited September 11, 2018 by Kim and Jermaine