$80 Led to F-1 Being Terminated for Chinese International Student

visa, green card, F-1 student
At this stage, the Trump administration is cracking down on all kinds of visas/green cards, and F-1 students are also key targets.

Year: 2018
Nationality: Chinese
Applicant: Classmate Huang

Brief background:
In 2017, Huang applied for an F-1 student visa from his favorite school and went to the United States to study for a graduate student. After coming to the new school, Huang was positive, and finally found an off-campus internship with hard work in 2018. After several contacts with new companies, he decided to apply for CPT and work while studying. However, the communication with the person in charge of the school’s international office was not smooth. The DSO carefully inquired about the situation of Huang’s off-campus internship, especially asked if he had started working? Classmate Huang answered yes truthfully. The person in charge further asked if he had ever taken the money paid by the company? Huang admitted to receiving an internship subsidy of US$80. The person in charge changed his face when he heard that, thinking that he had illegally worked and received wages, and wanted to terminate his F-1 student status. Huang was shocked. He never expected that the mere $80 internship subsidy would make things so serious. Introduced by a friend, he hurried to seek advice from Joseph Tsang, a lawyer of Tsang & Associates, how to stop losses in time and keep his student status.

Keys to success:
Key point 1: Lawyers respond quickly and intervene early
After Huang contacted Zang Dikai United Law Firm (Tsang & Associates) to explain the situation, Attorney Zang responded quickly and became his attorney to intervene in the case. He immediately answered every doubt and concern of Huang, and clarified his thoughts for him, and proposed different solutions. solution. The time given by the person in charge of the school is very limited, and his student status will be canceled after 4 days of notification in the email. Therefore, every day’s time is very precious and cannot be wasted. If the lawyer cannot reply in time and follow up the latest situation, it is likely that Huang will miss the best opportunity to communicate, and his F-1 student status will be cancelled.

Key point 2: Lawyers provide timely counseling and impart negotiation skills
On the first day after the incident, Attorney Zang communicated with Mr. Huang on the phone immediately to understand the process and put forward suggestions and plans; on the second day, Mr. Zang contacted Mr. Huang by phone again for one-on-one professional counseling and imparting negotiation skills , taught him how to effectively communicate with the person in charge of the school to minimize the harm, and also told Huang to make an explanation with the company in advance so that the two parties could reach an agreement and cooperate with each other; on the third day, Huang went to the international Student Office, have a second dialogue with the person in charge on the matter.

Case result:
The second conversation between Huang and the person in charge went very smoothly, and the school agreed not to revoke his student status. After the end, Huang couldn’t restrain his excitement and immediately called Zang Dikai United Law Firm (Tsang & Associates) to inform that the matter had been satisfactorily resolved and his student status was preserved. He especially emphasized that lawyer Zang’s negotiation skills are very effective, which benefited him a lot and played a decisive and key role in the case.

Lawyer Comments:
At this stage, the Trump administration is cracking down on all kinds of visas/green cards, and F-1 students are also key targets. Once there are problems such as student status invalidation/overstay, please consult a lawyer as soon as possible to seek a solution. The longer the stay, the higher the risk. It also reminds the majority of international students to be more mindful, understand the aspects related to F-1 status (such as: CPT/OPT/maintain status/change status, etc.), and avoid pitfalls.

*For more information, please click the link below to view:
Migration Road Lecture-F-1 Student Visa & Status Analysis
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[Successful Case] I-94 has expired, how to extend & adjust status in the United States?

*To protect customer privacy, customer names are pseudonyms.