Hi,

I have just begun my first semester (Aug 25, 2008) as a Graduate student at San Jose State University. I am currently on an H4 status (since Dec 2007)

My current situation:
I did not apply for an F-1 visa when I began my semester (in Aug 08) as I am eligible to study on an H4 status itself. I have now been contacted by the Director of the Department of Engineering for an internship opportunity. It is a research project in Human Factors that San Jose State University has been working on for NASA since 2 years. Due to technical reasons, they have a resource gap in the project and are hence in a need to fill this intern position immediately. The requirement is for a Human Factors student with experience in LISP programming who will be able to work 20 hours a week on this project. Since my profile is a good fit for the position, the professor thinks I will be able to hit the ground running immediately. However, with my current status of H4, I cannot take up an internship opportunity and hence the need to apply for an F-1. I need to start at the earliest and I have asked them time till Oct 15th so that I have time to process the F1 visa.

I have an appointment at the US Consulate at Vancouver on 4th November '08. The International Programs & Services office has now confirmed that it will not possible to create an I-20 for this semester with a start date in the middle of the semester. They can however, create an I-20 for me for next semester (Spring 2009) which will have a start date of 12/22/08.

They have given me two options:

1.) I change my visa appointment to 12/22/08 or after so that I don't have any complications entering the country. The guidance advises against entering the U.S. any earlier than 30 days before the I-20 program start date.

2.) If it is not possible to change the visa appointment date, I can apply for my F-1 visa on 11/4/08 with a Spring 2009 I-20. In this case, they have advised that it might be difficult trying to enter the U.S. at the port or entry with this I-20 because it is more than 30 days before the program start date.

Please advise which one of the above 2 options might be better for me in order to get started with working on the internship at the earliest.

Thanks very much!
Deepa
510-402-3136

Visa for internship is J-1. So you get be employed, get SSN, etc.

As a F-1 holder, you can't work unless you get an approval from USCIS which is extremely rare. Talk to international office... it seems the one who currently had discussions with does not really know what he/she is doing.