Leap with Japa: What is a visa

Episode-3-What is a Visa_with_low_background_audio U1 0:00 Welcome to the Leap with Japa, the podcast that bridges continents and connects stories. China's. As we dive into the vibrant world of international education, explore diverse cultures and share the extraordinary journeys of students far from home. Whether you're dreaming of studying abroad or already embarking on this adventure through other means. Liberal Japan is your companion in navigating the exciting, challenging and transformative world of global education. Let's leap into today's episode. 23s Hello and welcome to another episode of deep with japa. 1s Yep, I thought so far and long about how to start the next episode, and I thought it would be a great idea to discuss. Understanding the visa, the US visas, 1s and in my experience, I have encountered so many diverse kinds of people that moved to the US, and they come in different kinds of visas. And it seems that there's a slight confusion of of what a visa is and what it isn't. And I'd like to use this episode to just kind of give you, um, an overview of what a visa is and to discuss various visa classes requirements. So you use this as an opportunity to. Um, so when we talk about future episodes, this would be like a reference point kind of episode. So we'll start with a basic question. What is a visa? 2s A visa is an official document. Pretty much a stamp could be electronic as well. Some visas are electronic that is placed in a passport. That allows the holder the passport to enter, leave, or stay for a specified period. 1s Um, it's issued by a country that the person intends to visit. Who then looks at the who then assesses and then approves the visitor's entry for a purpose for a particular purpose. Typical purposes of tourism study work, or even if it's a transit, the vary in terms of duration, restrictions and requirements, and it depends on the issuance, country's immigration policies, and the applicant's reason for travel. 2s I say that because I get a lot of people who assume that once you have a visa issued on a passport, you are automatically granted unfettered access to a country. That is not true. 2s Um, my aim is to, you know, you know, we're going to be discussing the student visa. So I want to give you an overview of. What is that on the generic level, before we move on to applying for schools and you know, what are the steps involved? So that is what the visa is now. A visa is just a document that allows you to come in and leave. For America. There is a visa. The two different things. Visa allows you to come in and leave and is the source. Then is a status. When you come in to the US, you come in with a visa. When you see a border control officer, you are issued a status. A status indicates what your legal grounds within the country is. So for example, if you come in on a visitor visa. That is valid for two years. So what it means is that in that two year period, you can go in and come out. It doesn't mean you can stay for two years. It just means that you can fly in and out of the US for two years. When you come in at any time t on a visit visa, you have a maximum of six months that you can there. You can stay. So that's your status. Your status is six months. Your visa is two years. So it is possible if you extend beyond six months, you are automatically out of status. 1s Now that is pretty bad because being out of status means that if you were to leave the country, even though you have a valid visa, you might not be allowed to come back in based on whatever reasons you stayed on how you or why you exceeded six months. So that's to give a clarification. There's a difference. A huge difference between a status and a visa. And visa would allow you to come in and go out. You can have an expired visa but a valid status. Let me explain. Assuming you have a visa that expires in March of a year and you come in in January of that year. So let's say your visa expires March 2024 and you come into the country January 2024. You are legally allowed to stay till June of 2024. So your visa would expire in March, which means you can stay beyond the expiry date of your visa. However, you have to leave within six months. If you were to fly out. You would have to get another visa to come back in. So those are the two different things. Very important to keep note of that because it will form the basis of other episodes. You need to understand the difference between a US visa and your and a US status. So I'm going to go over the. 2s Details of an F1 student visa. 1s So the requirements to get one is this. You must have been. You must have been accepted by a school which has been approved by the Student and Exchange visitors program. So it's called SVP. 2s He must be enrolled as a full time student. You must prove you know sufficient financial support to cover your tuition. You must be proficient in English, and you must demonstrate strong ties to your home country, indicating you will return after your studies. Now, what is the process by which you get a student visa? You would have to. 1s Get on I-20 and I-20 is what you get after you get admission, and you then pay the service fee. The service fee is the fee of the I-20. 1s You'd have to apply, so you'd have to pay that before you apply for the visa. Then you fill out the DZ 160 form on the website. You then schedule an interview. You pay the fees, then you schedule an interview. You prepare your documentation, your proof of funds, and you know your passport that has at least six months stay, six months beyond your stay. You pay application fee. You attend a visa interview and you know you're granted. Now the next thing is to discuss the limitations of that visa. 1s So first you are not allowed to work on off campus. During the first academic year. So you cannot work outside of campus. However, you would need an authorization to work on campus from the designated school official, which is the DSO. After your first year, you can then work. In companies so you can work, uh, during the summer using your CPT. 1s And you can also work on the oppt, but we're going to discuss that in future episodes. This is just to give you an understanding of this particular class of visa 1s duration of stay. Now, based on what I just said about length of stay and a visa, when you're coming on an F1, you were stamped remember the visit visa? You can only stay six months on the F1. You are stamped duration of stay which is RDS, which means as long as you maintain your student status, you are allowed to stay again. To maintain your student status, you must be enrolled full time. You must be meeting the minimum requirements. You know you must be getting the right grades, so you have to keep your status in order for you. You have to keep your status as a student in order for you to keep your status to remain in the country. 1s To travel out, you will need a signature from your designated school official to make sure that they know that you're flying in and flying out. So idea. So it's essentially like an immigration person that looks over each student. This was brought in after September 11th as a reason to make sure that there's adequate tracking of students adhere so you can cancel your your your your account if they don't if you're not meeting the requirements and they're registered for classes, you'll have to report that to the USCIS. And there are different visa classes. You have the J-1. You have the H-1b. And you also have the visit visa. Now. Most of this, the J one, is used by researchers and scholars and people that want to do postdocs from other countries. The H-1b visa is used by professionals and graduates, um, for most of their companies in the US. 1s Another, um, vital information I want to pass across is regarding the B1, B2 visa, which is technically used by a lot of people. 1s Um, and the reason why I am mentioning the B1, B2 is there's been a rampant use of the b1, b2. To assume that once I get it, um, eligible to stay forever in the US. 1s So this is the breakdown of what the b1 B2 visa limitations are. 1s It's used for business related activities like coming to conferences, meetings to also use for tourism. So the B-1 part of that combo visa is used for business related activities. And the B2 component of that combo is for tourism, vacation, visiting friends, relatives, for medical treatments and for, you know, things like social events and, you know, and the likes. The visa does not permit employment in the US, so you cannot work on a B1 B2 visa. Doesn't matter how what anyone has told you, what anyone has done in the past. By law, legally you cannot. I repeat, you cannot work on the b1 B2 visa. You would need what they call a work authorization. That's going to be in future, and that's going to be in future episodes to discuss that. So what is the duration of stay? So typically it's granted for up to six months. So you can only stay at any time on a B1, B2 for a maximum of six months. It can be extended. You can request to extend it, but you cannot stay at any time more than six months. 2s You are not allowed to work. No employment at all. You are not allowed to study under a b1, B2 so you cannot go to school on a, b1, b2. You cannot work on a b1, b2. 1s The visa does not provide a path to US residency or long term stays. It's strictly for temporary visits, so you cannot stay beyond six months. You cannot. There are limited extensions and change of status. While it is very possible for you to change from a B1, B2 to F1. It's not a guaranteed process. 2s Because if you were to try that and it fails, if you go back to your home country, you would probably never be allowed to get that class of visa. You tried to switch to. 2s You do not have access to public assistance. So no public benefits, no assistance programs, nothing. There are health care restrictions. You must have adequate health care. You are not eligible for US government health insurance at all. 1s Visitors must also demonstrate that they have sufficient funds to support themselves during the stay. 2s And key to this is you must leave the US by the end of your authorized stay. 1s Unless you file for an extension. And even if you do follow the extension, it is not a guarantee that you would get it. So a b1 B2 visa for someone who wants to stay in the US is not a good visa to be on. There are countless people that that have been told, stories that you can come in on the B1, B2 or we're just going to we're just going to figure it out. You cannot figure it out. It is what the law says. You cannot stay on a b1, B2 visa. You might be able to switch status which is allowed but is not always guaranteed. So this is why one of the reasons why I had to do this episode. So. 1s I hope this is giving you like an insight into. What a visa is and what is expected of each classes of visas. 1s Um, I hope that this would form a basis for good discussions with, you know, the people that will bring on this podcast and also to people who would, you know, want to ask more questions about this. But this is this is more like a reference point that we discussed visas. And, um, I hope to catch you in future episodes. Thank you very much. 7s Thank you for tuning into this episode of La Pajama. I hope it brought you valuable insights and stories that resonate with your journey. 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