I’m going to be doing several posts that cover pit falls that international students run into. This first one covers an international student starting their U.S. education in the summer.
Credit Hour Issues:
When you start your first semester matters. For summer starts some schools will tell international students that they need only 6 credits where others will tell them 12. Which is correct? 12 credit hours, and we will look into the laws that actually cover this.
There are actually several places where information on the 12 credit requirement can be found. First is 8CFR214.2(f)(6)(i)(B) (https://www.nafsa.org/_/file/_/amresource/8cfr2142f.htm) this one says “Undergraduate study at a college or university, certified by a school official to consist of at least twelve semester or quarter hours of instruction per academic term in those institutions using standard semester, trimester, or quarter hour systems, where all undergraduate students who are enrolled for a minimum of twelve semester or quarter hours are charged full-time tuition or are considered full-time for other administrative purposes, or its equivalent (as determined by the district director in the school approval process), except when the student needs a lesser course load to complete the course of study during the current term.” The part of this where it gets tricky is that schools are trying to use the part that says “or its equivalent” as a loop hole to reduce the course load for summer. The problem with this is that in theory they could actually use this at any point in the year to justify reducing a course load and not keeping in good faith with the law in how it was built. The law says nothing about the length of the course impacting this requirement or the time of year, more on this later. Also if you speak to a representative from the government they will also tell you that the government goes both ways on this depending on who is doing the review or audit. This means that it is the luck of the draw on if you will have someone review this and then ding you on it. Because of this last one alone it is not worth the risk to get into trouble with the government for not being in compliance. If a student is caught with only having 6 credits in their first semester it can impact any changes of status later and impact chances of getting a PR card. If you intend on trying to change your status later on consult an international and get anything they tell you in writing so that you can use it later if need be.
Another place where this can be found is 9 FAM 402.5-5(I)(1) (U) F-1 Academic Student (https://fam.state.gov/FAM/09FAM/09FAM040205.html). The wording is exactly the same. It is trying to get the same point across. Another interesting look at this is Boston University where they look at the specific start dates/I20 issue date for the courses (https://www.bu.edu/isso/immigration-status/maintaining-status/courseload/). If you start summer classes in May you must do 12 credits whereas later starts you can do 8 credits. This math is more correct if the schools are pushing for reduced credits for a shorter semester. Let’s actually look at the math.
Normally a full semester is about 16 weeks and we will use that as our base. Most schools have different parts of a semester that are made up of accelerated course. The next most common summer semester is a 10 week semester.
10/16= .625 This would mean that for a 10 week course students would need to complete 62.5% of the normal 12 full time credits which is 7.5 credits. Since as far as I know schools don’t offer classes worth below 1 credit this means that students would need to complete at least 8 semester hours in 10 week summer courses to be considered full time. 12 week courses would be 9 credits and only in 8 week courses could 6 credits work. Your school would need to do the calculation based off the length of your specific courses to try and give you the correct amount of credit hours. Also even with this during the fall and spring semester the government doesn’t care if you are in all accelerated courses, because they still force you to take at least 12 credits to maintain full time status. This means that if your school is still trying to do this calculation they are still pushing what is acceptable to the government. At least if they do it this way they can try to use the math to support their actions to the government if it comes into question. At the same time, you do not want to get caught in a fight between the school and the government, because most of the time it will be the international student that suffers and not the other two.
For those of you in Colorado this holds up the same. CU Boulder has made sure that they have very clear language about this on their website: https://www.colorado.edu/isss/students/current-students/f-1-student-overview/full-time-enrollment . “Full-time enrollment is only required in the summer if it is your first or last semester of enrollment…… A full course of study is defined as: Undergraduate students: At least 12 credit hours.” Clear, cut, and dry.
Also below is an email that I received directly from the government that clearly states that international students must do 12 credits in the summer if it is their first semester:
From: Bilderback, Julia
Sent: Friday, January 7, 2022 6:37 PM
To: SEVP <SEVP@ice.dhs.gov>
Subject: Clarification
Dear Staff Member,
We are trying to verify a rule in relation to F1 students. If it is the first semester for an international student and they are starting in the summer, must they complete the normal 12 credits or can they do less due to the summer being a shorter semester? Everything I am finding says that they must do 12 credits to be considered full time and I cannot find specific language anywhere that says how to handle summer semesters if it is there first semester. Any guidance on this would be amazing. We are asking because some schools are making them do 12 credits where other schools are letting them only do 6. We are hoping to get some feedback on this and to see if you can look into getting more clear language around this to help schools.
Thanks,
Julia Bilderback
From: SEVP <SEVP@ice.dhs.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2022 10:48 AM
To: Bilderback, Julia
Subject: RE: Clarification
Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your inquiry. Please review the response below from the Policy Unit:
In general, F-1 students are not required to engage in a full course of study if they take classes during an annual vacation. However, an F-1 student at an academic [i.e. semester-based] institution is [only] considered to be in status during the annual (or summer) vacation *if the student is eligible* … ” (emphasis added). See 8 CFR 214.2(f)(5)(iii). As stated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) Policy Guidance 1408-01: Academic Year, F-1 student eligibility for annual vacation is dependent upon the student having completed at least one academic year enrolled in an SEVP-certified school. Since the summer term is the student’s first semester, they are not yet eligible for annual vacation and are required to engage in a full course of study, as defined by 8 CFR 214.2(f)(6), during the summer term to maintain their F-1 status after entering the United States. In this case, the student is required to engage in 12 credits during the summer term since the student is not yet eligible for an annual (summer) vacation.
If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact the SEVP Response Center.
Kind regards,
SEVP Response Center
Student and Exchange Visitor Program
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
500 12th St. SW STOP 5600
Washington DC 20536-5600
Phone: 703-603-3400
Toll-Free: 800-892-4829
So why do some schools tell you different requirements and push for you to start in the summer? To be truthful it helps their numbers and not the students. Summer enrollment is always lower for most schools and getting as many summer students as possible helps them. On top of that international students (at least here in Colorado) pay the non-resident rate (much higher tuition then what other students pay), which means that they become cash cows for schools. This is not a private vs. non-profit school thing and each will try to get international students in the door. Be leery of schools that tell you that you only need to do six credits in your first semester if it is a summer start for you. As I’ve said before, always make sure that you have contact with an international lawyer specially if you are going to do anything less than 12 credits in your first semester. Also try to get it in writing from the school, because you made need to show it later if you ever get questioned about it while trying to change status.
No Break:
Even if you do decide to start in the summer, the U.S. government does not recognize the summer as a normal school semester (only spring and fall count as normal semesters). This means that you would then have to complete the summer, fall, and spring semester before you would get the following summer off. If you start in the fall you would just have to do the fall and spring semester before you get a break. This situation actually gets worse if you start in the spring semester. If you start in the spring you must do 12 credits in the spring semester, 12 credits in the summer semester, 12 credits in the fall semester, and 12 credits in the following spring semester before you actually qualify to get the summer off. Below is an email I got from SEVP talking about this issue.
From: SEVP <SEVP@ice.dhs.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 11:14 AM
To: Bilderback, Julia
Subject: RE: Clarification
Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your inquiry. A student beginning in the Spring Session will not be eligible for annual vacation until a full academic year is completed. SEVP uses the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) definition of an academic year. See 34 CFR 668.3(a). The definition stipulates that:
An academic year is a minimum of:
--30 weeks of instructional time for programs offered in credit hours.
--26 weeks of instructional time for programs offered in clock hours.
If your undergraduate program is measured in credit hours, you must take a minimum of 24 semester or trimester hours or 36 quarterly hours.
If your undergraduate program is measured in clock hours, you must complete a minimum of 900 clock hours.
If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact the SEVP Response Center.
Kind regards,
SEVP Response Center
Student and Exchange Visitor Program
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Accelerated Classes:
Since summers are so much shorter depending on what each school offers, they are having to condense all of the course material in a much shorter time frame. This means that the instructors must present the material very quickly and they do not have the time to go into as much detail on subjects as they normally would. Personally I feel that students get short changed with summer courses because it is just impossible to cram in all the info in such a short time (and I have done a lot of summer classes in my time). The education that students receive in the summer is just not as complete as doing the classes in the other 2 semesters. The time when summer classes can be good is if you are having to retake a class and want to be able to just focus on one subject that you have experienced before. As a refresher course or to improve a past grade would be great reasons to do a summer course for a standard student. International students have to not only deal with the rushed material, but then the normal issues like adapting to a new culture, possible language issues, and new educational system while dealing with fast pace courses. This does not give international students enough time to adapt to just being in the U.S. before making them rush and be overloaded with classes.
I hope that in sharing this that international students will learn when is the best time for them to start their education while educators can learn the actual requirements that the government has in place. I see a lot of these educational rules and laws like people when they are neglecting their taxes. Just because you don’t want to follow the rules, you never know when you will be audited and if caught there are bad repercussions. So always try to stay on top of that the government wants and don’t just trust what your friends or family tell you. Also if you are an international student, it is also in your best interest to have an international lawyer just in case anything ever happens.
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