Updated
DHS published a final rule on 17 July 2026 to replace duration of status (D/S) for F, J and I nonimmigrants with a fixed admission period of at most four years, due to take effect on 15 September 2026. The day before it would have, the District of Massachusetts blocked it.
Read more →F, M and J applicants are subject to an online presence review: the DS-160 asks for every social account handle used in the past five years, and privacy settings must be set to public.
Read more →Since September 2025, nonimmigrant visa applicants are expected to interview at the US mission in their country of residence or nationality; for Taiwan passport holders and residents of Taiwan, that is AIT.
Read more →The Form I-20 is the Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status, required for every F and M student. After you are admitted, a designated school official (DSO) at the school issues it in SEVIS; you do not apply for it yourself.
Read more →You may enter up to 30 days before the program start date on your I-20, carrying the originals of three documents on you: passport, visa and signed I-20. The CBP officer checks them at the desk.
Read more →F-1 students may work on campus during their studies, up to 20 hours a week while school is in session; off-campus work needs separate authorisation.
Read more →For new students an F or M visa can be issued up to 365 days before the start date on the I-20 (the old limit was 120), but entry is allowed no earlier than 30 days before that date.
Read more →US schools cannot tell from a Taiwanese transcript how many credits a course carries or what the average comes to on a 4.0 scale, so most graduate programmes ask for a third-party report that restates your qualifications in US terms.
Read more →Both the TOEFL and the GRE test fee include four free score recipients; beyond that it is US$25 per institution for TOEFL and US$40 per recipient for the GRE.
Read more →Work backwards from the deadline. For an early-December deadline, the credential evaluation has to be moving by late September if you are using WES, letters get asked for by early November, and TOEFL or GRE should be done by September.
Read more →Ask at least four to six weeks ahead; in application season a professor may be writing several letters at once, so earlier is better.
Read more →After finishing the degree an F-1 student can apply for post-completion OPT, up to 12 months, in work related to the major; if the degree's CIP code is on the DHS STEM list and the employer uses E-Verify, a further 24-month extension is available.
Read more →A DHS final rule published on 29 December 2025 and effective 27 February 2026 replaced the long-standing random H-1B cap lottery with wage-weighted selection. The first round has now run: registration for FY2027 was open 4–19 March 2026, USCIS announced the selections on 31 March, and on 17 July it said the 85,000 cap had been reached and there would be no second selection this year.
Read more →The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed 4 July 2025, created a US$250 visa integrity fee on nonimmigrant visas. F-1 and J-1 are included, and it is charged per visa, so each dependent pays it too.
Read more →Common estimates put one year at NT$1.4M–3M, driven by public vs private, city, and field. Business and engineering skew high; New York and San Francisco cost far more than the Midwest.
Read more →The I-901 SEVIS fee is US$350 for F and M students with an I-20, and US$220 for most J exchange visitors with a DS-2019; without it there is no interview.
Read more →Each question links to the answer in its entry.
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