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International F1-student & H-1 visa ????????


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Hi all,

I will be starting my PA school in couple of months in NY. However, i am extremely overwhelmed with my present situation because i cannot apply FAFSA as i am international student with F-1 visa. So, anyone in similar situation suggest me where do they get their loans ( i mean which bank and how much interest). I have 0% knowledge abt these matter? Any suggestions would be appreciative.

 

I am nervous about my future too regarding VISA? Does the hospitals and clinics sponsor for the H1 visa? Any replies regarding loans and visa would be really appreciative. I am in the situation of life or death matter decisions.....plsssss help....

Pangu1

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Not quite sure about where your coming from, but I have more than enough experience with this being Canadian. You first need to have your official acceptance in order from your program you will be attending. The school "officially" accepting you will kickstart your F-1 visa process. You, of course, should be best friends right now with either the financial advisor or registrar at your school. I have too been accepted and will start in August. The program needs to recieve my deposits (which are on there way) to officially accept me. As soon as that happens then I am in their system, and the admissions, financial responsibilites and all that other paperwork will start. I know from experience that this time is pretty hectic, because paper work can't be handled in person, rather mailed thousands of miles and many many prayers that it will get to where it needs to be. That doesn't even take into account whether or not the info on the paperwork is correct. The process is different for different schools and each individual case, but I would suggest these steps:

 

1. Get in contact with your financial advisor, financial services department or registrar at the program. Someone in the PA dept may be able to help you find one. I was actually placed with a financial advisor from the school I will be attending, which helps because I know exactly who I need to send my forms to. They may be the people you need to talk to about VISA information, if there is isn't an international dept.

 

2. Get all the materials your program needs for right now. These small items, such as forms, transcripts and anything that takes time to send/deliver will take away some stress later on if you get them done early.

 

3. If you have any programs in your country for student loans through the government, or state/province, I would suggest you get on that quick! In Canada, we have a Canada student loan, and a provincial student loan. For a 2 year (24 month) period I will likely recieve $45,000.. which will cover almost half of my tuition, room & board etc for the 2 years. The awesome thing about this program is that it does not accrue interest, and a small portion ~10% is grant money, meaning I do not have to pay it back. On top of this, at the end of each year they actually take off about 30-35% of the principal of my loan. It gets better... if I can't afford the payments after school has ended, they start you on a 6 month grace period.. after that 6 months, if you still can't make the payments you can re-apply and get another 6 months re-payment assistance (grace period) with no payments and no interest accrues!!! It's an unbelievable program.

 

4. Find a private loan STAT. This is obviously the quickest way to get your funds set. You will most likely have to fill out a financial responsibility form of some sort with the school you have been accepted to, proving that you have the funds available. A bank loan will get you started on that while you wait for other sources of funds.

 

5. To reiterate on #3 - Once you have been officially accepted with all of the relevant forms, documents etc to confirm your acceptance... Get in touch with your international services dept of your school, if there is one. If there isn't, the financial services/registrar can help you with this one. They will have to file for an F-1 visa. The school will most likely do all of the ground work for you, or at least give you direction. For me, once I am in the system (upon the school recieving my deposit) then they can apply for me. This doesn't take too much time. They will send you some documents that you need when crossing the border to verify your F-1 status. If you have never crossed before, you may need to pay a fee upon crossing. Be prepared for that.

 

Most importantly, you might feel rushed, or have some anxiety about these matters. Don't. These things take time for travel, signing among other things. Just get on it right now and do something every day so that you feel you are accomplishing something. It would be a shame to have come this far and have everything fall through because of some form where you didn't dot an I and can't get across the border to go to PA school. GET STARTED NOW!

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Oh, and regarding work visa... aka H-1 B Visa. I have heard some testimonials of canadians recieveing H-1B status as a PA. I should probably know more about that since I will be attending school and want a job in the US... obviously. I do know how hard it is to obtain an H1B visa or even a J status and all the other ones that are out there. Trust me, it's not easy. Feel at ease with the fact that in order to obtain a work visa, the position you apply for needs to require a Bacc. degree or higher in the field you are pursuing (ex. Bacc. in Medical Technology will get you a visa.. if that does, a MS in Physician Assistant studies will increase your chances ten fold.. add that to that the fact that PA employment is still on the rise and employment is not only good now, but it will be for many years to come).

 

Worst case scenario, you apply for OPT status during your last year of PA school. This will give you a full year to work in the US with little restriction. This is where you can find an employer, show them your skills and hopefully they fall in love with you and would take you over everyone else. Then they can file for H1-b and away you go!

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@Walkoffshot Thank you so much for the reply.. I am not a Canadian resident, looks like Canadian resident has a lot of opportunities for student loans. Well i am from Nepal, and i have already got my acceptance letter. So, now i need to work on my private loans and stuffs. My school told me that they donot have any loans to give for international student. So, i will be sending out all the documents soon to school and these things out of my way..

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