F-1 Student Visa 2026: Requirements, Fees, Interview and Status

What the F-1 Visa Actually Is

The F-1 is the nonimmigrant classification for academic students under INA 101(a)(15)(F)(i). It covers degree programmes, university and community college study, high school, conservatory and seminary study, and full-time language training. Its close siblings are the M-1 for vocational study and the J-1 for sponsored exchange — the choice between them is decided by what you will study and who is paying, not by which one is easier to get. The F-1 carries an intent requirement that most other visas do not: you must convince the officer you are coming temporarily, that you have the academic preparation to succeed, and that you will leave when the programme ends.

Three documents govern the entire classification, and they are issued by three different bodies. The school — must be certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which you can confirm in the official Study in the States school search — issues Form I-20, your Certificate of Eligibility, with a unique SEVIS ID printed on it and a program start and end date. DHS collects the I-901 SEVIS fee that funds the SEVIS record the school maintains. The Department of State issues the visa stamp itself after the DS-160 and interview. Then CBP admits you and writes your status on the I-94. If any one of the four is wrong — a school that is not SEVP-certified, a SEVIS ID that does not match, a fee paid to a lookalike site — the process stops at the window, no matter how strong the rest of the file is.

A useful mental model: the I-20 is a contract between you and the school, the visa stamp is only a travel document that lets you present yourself at the border, and status is what CBP grants on entry. You can hold a valid F-1 stamp and still be out of status if you stop studying; you can hold expired F-1 status paperwork and still be fine inside the US as long as your authorised stay runs. Keeping those three layers separate prevents most of the expensive mistakes students make.

Acceptance, I-20 and the DS-160

The order of operations matters more than most applicants realise, because each step unlocks the next. First, apply to and be accepted by an SEVP-certified school. On acceptance the school registers you in SEVIS and issues your Form I-20, which you and your school official must sign. Only an SEVP-certified school can issue a valid I-20, and the electronic SEVIS record — not the paper form — is the definitive record the consular officer checks.

Second, pay the I-901 SEVIS fee of $350 for F-1 and M-1 students through fmjfee.com, the only official payment site, using the SEVIS ID, family name and date of birth printed on your I-20. Pay it before the consular interview; you may book the appointment first, but allow at least three business days for payment to be received and verified, and bring the printed confirmation. The fee is non-refundable, but a payment made within the previous 12 months can be reused for a second application of the same type — see the SEVIS fee guide for transfers, receipts and the country-specific payment rules.

Third, complete Form DS-160 online and pay the $185 nonimmigrant visa application processing fee — F visas are non-petition-based, so $185 is the correct tier (petition-based categories such as H, L, O, P, Q and R are $205). Print the DS-160 confirmation page with its barcode, because that page, not the application, is what you hand over. Fourth, schedule the interview at the embassy or consulate in the country where you live; appointment availability varies enormously by post and season, so start early. Our DS-160 guide covers field-by-field completion, and the visa fee calculator adds up every charge before you commit.

Two timing windows are fixed by regulation and worth memorising. A new F-1 visa may be issued up to 365 days before the program start date on your I-20. You may not enter the United States more than 30 days before that start date. So a May-issued stamp for a September intake is normal, but a July entry for a December start is not — CBP will turn you away at the port of entry even with a valid visa.

What the F-1 Costs in 2026

Four government charges appear on almost every F-1 file, and they are paid to two different governments, so they cannot be combined. The SEVIS I-901 fee is $350 (DHS, at fmjfee.com; $220 for most J-1s, $35 for subsidised J categories, and nothing for F-2 or J-2 dependents). The visa application processing fee is $185 (Department of State, per applicant, non-refundable whether or not the visa is issued). Some nationalities also owe a separate visa issuance fee set by reciprocity — check the country-specific instructions on the embassy website before assuming the $185 is all you pay.

Once you are in status, the third charge is the Form I-765 fee for an EAD if you apply for CPT-adjacent OPT or post-completion OPT: the standard I-765 filing fee is $470 online or $520 on paper. Beyond government money there are school costs — application fees, the institutional SEVIS administration fee some schools invoice separately, tuition deposits, health insurance — plus passport renewal, travel, and the financial evidence itself, which must be liquid and verifiable rather than merely large on a spreadsheet. A realistic first-year budget outside tuition is roughly $2,000 to $4,000 depending on the city, and officers do ask how you arrived at your numbers.

There is no USCIS fee for getting your I-20 extended by your DSO while you remain in the same programme — that is a SEVIS action by your school official, not an application. What does cost money is anything that goes to USCIS: an extension of stay on Form I-539 ($420 online, $470 on paper), reinstatement after a status violation, a new EAD, or a change of status. Budget for those before you need them rather than discovering the price during a crisis.

The Consular Interview and Documents

Bring the documents the Department of State lists, in original form where it asks for originals: a passport valid for at least six months beyond your intended period of stay unless a country agreement exempts you; the DS-160 confirmation page; the visa application fee receipt; one photo if the DS-160 upload failed; and your signed Form I-20. Each dependent needs their own I-20 in their own name. On top of that, expect to be asked for evidence of academic preparation — transcripts, diplomas, test scores required by your US school — plus evidence of how you will pay educational, living and travel costs, and evidence of your intent to depart when the course of study ends.

The interview itself is short, and the officer is testing three propositions. Are you a genuine student? The officer will ask about your programme, your school, why this major and what you studied before; rehearsing answers that a stranger could not deliver is the fastest way to look scripted and coached. Can you pay? Sponsors must be explained — who they are, how they earn, what the relationship is — and the numbers must reconcile with the I-20's estimated cost of attendance. Will you leave? This is the 214(b) question, and the answer is best made with concrete anchors: a job or family obligation waiting at home, property, an admission letter elsewhere, or a clearly defined plan to return and work in a field your degree maps to. Our F-1 interview questions list and the US visa interview Q&A bank show the actual phrasings used at the window, and proving ties to your home country handles the hardest part.

Two practical points. First, consular officers can and do waive interviews for renewals, but first-time student applicants are generally interviewed and the waiver is never something you can assume — check the post's instructions. Second, everything you say must be consistent with your DS-160 and your I-20; a contradiction between the form and the spoken answer is treated as a credibility problem, not a typo, and is the single most common reason an otherwise qualified student leaves with a refusal slip.

Duration of Status vs Fixed Admission

When you land, the officer writes your admission on the I-94 record. For F-1 students the notation has historically been D/S — duration of status, meaning no fixed end date: you may remain for as long as you maintain the programme on your I-20, plus the 60-day grace period afterwards. The visa stamp's expiry date is irrelevant to that: it only governs presenting yourself at a port of entry, which is why a student can hold an expired stamp, remain lawfully in the US, and simply need a new stamp to travel again. Because the stamp's length is set by the reciprocity schedule for your nationality, never treat its expiry as your status expiry — read the I-94 instead, every single time you enter.

That framework was scheduled to change. On July 17, 2026 DHS published a final rule, Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure (91 FR 44976), which would replace D/S for F, J and I nonimmigrants with a fixed Admit Until Date — the program end date on the I-20 capped at four years, plus a 30-day departure window — and require an extension of stay on Form I-539 to stay longer, with the grace period cut from 60 days to 30. Its effective date was set for September 15, 2026. On September 14, 2026, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction postponing the rule's effective date pending final resolution of Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration v. DHS (No. 26-13799-FDS), so duration of status remains the operative framework as we fact-check this page in October 2026.

Practical advice has not changed either way: read your I-94 after every entry, keep your I-20 program end date accurate, and ask your DSO before assuming a date is flexible. Litigation can move quickly in both directions, so the full mechanics, transition dates and what-if scenarios live on our duration of status rule page — check it before you travel if your I-94 shows anything other than D/S.

Maintaining Status Once Admitted

Status is not a document you own; it is a set of conditions you continuously satisfy. The first condition is a full course of study: undergraduates at a college or university must take at least 12 credit hours a term, graduate students must carry the full load their institution certifies as full-time, and language and non-degree programmes have their own clock-hour thresholds. Dropping below that without a written reduced-course-load authorisation from your DSO — allowed for medical reasons or academic difficulty, not for a heavy job — is a status violation. Enrolment must be continuous: you cannot simply skip a summer or a term without a plan your DSO has recorded.

The second condition is reporting. Changes of address, changes of major or employer, a new local phone number, any deviation from the I-20's program end date — each goes to your DSO so SEVIS can be updated, and most must be reported within 10 days. Your DSO is not an adviser you visit once; they are the person whose signature keeps your record active. The third is never working outside an authorisation, which the work section below sets out in full. The fourth is travel hygiene: re-entering requires a valid passport, a valid F-1 visa stamp (unless you are exempt or crossing from Canada or Mexico with a valid status), a travel-endorsed I-20 signed within the last 12 months, and proof you are still registered.

When something does go wrong — an overstay, an unauthorised job, a term dropped without approval — the repair routes are narrow: reinstatement on Form I-539, which takes months during which you generally cannot work or travel and which USCIS grants only where the violation was beyond your control; departure and re-entry, which forfeits accrued practical training and can trigger bars; or a change of status where you qualify. Our F-1 reinstatement guide explains the standard, and change of status requirements covers the alternative. The uncomfortable truth is that none of these routes restores lost OPT months, so prevention is worth far more than the cure.

Work Rules: Campus, CPT, OPT and STEM

F-1 employment is a permission-slip system with exactly four lawful channels. On-campus employment needs no prior authorisation beyond valid full-time status: up to 20 hours per week while classes are in session and full-time during official breaks, for the school itself or an educationally affiliated off-campus location. The 20 hours is a weekly ceiling across all jobs combined, not an average. Off-campus work of any kind — cash jobs, gig apps, freelance for a home-country client — requires separate authorisation and is the leading cause of terminated SEVIS records.

After one full academic year you unlock Curricular Practical Training, authorised by your DSO directly on a new I-20 for internships and placements that are integral to your curriculum, and Optional Practical Training, authorised by USCIS through Form I-765 for 12 months per degree level. Watch the CPT trap: 12 months or more of full-time CPT at the same degree level eliminates OPT at that level entirely, while part-time CPT never counts. The OPT application window opens 90 days before program completion and closes 60 days after, and all post-completion OPT must finish within 14 months of the end date, so filing late directly costs you months.

Graduates with a degree on the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List can add the 24-month STEM OPT extension, reaching 36 months total, provided the employer is enrolled in E-Verify and both sides sign the Form I-983 training plan. Unemployment is metered at 90 days on standard OPT and 150 days in aggregate across OPT plus STEM, and the SEVP Portal reporting duties are stricter on the extension. The full mechanics — hour limits, the 14-month rule, unemployment counting, what terminates status — are in the F-1 CPT and OPT work guide, with the unemployment clocks tracked in our OPT unemployment tracker.

Proving You Can Pay

Your I-20 states an estimated cost of attendance — tuition plus living costs for one academic year — and the consular officer must be satisfied that those funds exist, are yours or your sponsor's, and are genuinely available. Evidence that works is specific and liquid: bank statements in the sponsor's name showing a stable balance rather than a deposit added last week, fixed-deposit or certificate-of-deposit documents, income certificates or tax returns showing how the money was earned, a sanctioned education-loan sanction letter, and scholarship or assistantship award letters from the school. Every document in a foreign language needs a certified translation, and a large balance with no explanation of origin raises more questions than a modest one with a clear trail.

The I-20's number is a floor, not a target. If your programme is two years, officers expect to see how year two is covered — a loan sanction for the full duration, a sponsor's income against ongoing savings, or a documented funding plan. If a parent is the sponsor, be ready to explain the relationship, their occupation, their employer and why they can release the funds; a sponsorship letter alone, signed and unstamped by evidence, carries little weight. Our US student visa checklist lists the documents in the order officers expect to see them, and the document checklist tool builds a printable list from your own situation.

Finally, funding and intent are read together. A student who is fully funded but cannot explain what they will do after graduation looks like an intending immigrant; a student with a clear post-graduation plan back home but shaky finances looks like a dropout risk. You need both stories to be coherent, and they must match what your DS-160, your I-20 and your spoken answers all say.

F-2 Dependents

Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 may accompany you in F-2 status, each with their own Form I-20 issued by the same SEVP-certified school and each paying their own DS-160 and $185 visa fee — but no SEVIS I-901 fee, because dependents are exempt from it. They must show their own relationship documents and, in practice, evidence that your funding covers them too, so a tight budget becomes a problem at three windows instead of one.

F-2 rules are restrictive in two ways that surprise families. First, F-2 spouses and children may not work at all, in any capacity, for any reason — no EAD exists for them. Second, study is permitted only on a part-time, avocational or recreational basis: an F-2 may study full-time in K-12, may take less than a full course of study at a postsecondary institution, but must change to F-1 status before enrolling in a full course of academic or vocational study. An adult spouse who wants a full-time degree needs their own I-20, their own SEVIS fee and their own status — plan that from the start rather than mid-term, because starting full-time study in F-2 status is itself a violation.

Dependents follow the principal's status: if the F-1's program is extended by the DSO, SEVIS updates both records, and if the F-1 completes and uses the 60-day grace period, the F-2's clock runs with it. Travel separately is possible but each person carries their own stamp and I-20, and the work visa vs student visa comparison plus our J-2 dependent guide (where a work EAD does exist) show how sharply the dependent rules differ between classifications.

Renewal, Expiry and Travel

An expiring F-1 stamp matters only when you need to cross a border. Renewal is a fresh DS-160, a fresh $185 fee and usually a new interview — though many posts grant interview waivers to qualifying renewals — and you may apply in your country of residence or, at greater risk, in a third country where officers are less familiar with your circumstances. Because a new stamp can only be issued up to 365 days before your program start date, and because re-entry always requires a valid travel-endorsed I-20, the safest rhythm is to renew when you are home for the summer rather than gambling on a third-country appointment three days before a flight.

Before every trip, confirm four things: your passport is valid, your F-1 stamp is valid for the date you will re-enter, your I-20 has a travel signature from your DSO issued within the last 12 months, and your SEVIS record is active. Post-completion OPT holders should also carry their EAD card and evidence of employment or an offer, because CBP will ask what you are doing in the country. Travel while an OPT application is pending can abandon it, so get a written answer from your DSO before buying a ticket. If your passport is lost abroad, our US passport renewal and lost passport pages handle the replacement mechanics.

If you graduate and want to stay, the routes out of F-1 are a change of status to H-1B, L-1, O-1 or another work classification, an employer-sponsored petition, or departure and consular processing later. Note that OPT time is not counted toward any immigrant quota and does not by itself lead to a green card; the H-1B guide and change of status requirements page explain the handover.

214(b) Refusals and Reapplying

The overwhelming majority of F-1 refusals are issued under section 212(a)(1)(B) / INA 214(b): the officer is not satisfied that you will depart after your studies. It is a presumption, not a finding of fraud, it carries no ban, no fine and no black mark beyond the record of the refusal itself, and it can be overcome with new evidence at a fresh application. What you cannot do is argue with the decision at the window — the only currency is a materially stronger file the second time.

Strengthen the three pillars in order. Academic readiness: if the refusal suggested you are not prepared, add the test scores, transcripts or conditional-admission evidence the school expects. Money: if finances looked thin, widen the sponsor's documentation, add the loan sanction for the full programme length, and show how the money was earned. Ties and plan: convert vague intentions into a concrete post-graduation plan — a named employer, a licensure path, a family business, further study at home — and document why this specific US degree is the efficient route to it. A short, honest cover letter laying out what changed since the refusal is read favourably by officers reviewing a second file.

Timing and venue matter too: you may reapply as soon as you can book an appointment, but reapplying with an identical file in the same week simply reproduces the same outcome. A gap of a few weeks during which evidence actually changes is worth more than speed. Our 214(b) refusal and reapplication walkthrough covers the evidence packages by refusal reason, and if there was a genuine misrepresentation or a prior overstay, stop and consult a licensed immigration attorney before filing again.

Scams That Target Students

The F-1 pipeline is targeted because applicants are young, urgent and abroad. The classic is the fee lookalike: a website that charges a "processing" or "service" surcharge on top of the SEVIS fee, or collects it in local currency and never transmits it. The only official I-901 site is fmjfee.com, and the only official visa fee channels are the ones the embassy or its payment contractor names — never a WhatsApp number's UPI link. The second is the guaranteed-seat or guaranteed-visa agent, who sells an admission, an appointment slot or a "strong file" for a flat fee. No agent can guarantee a visa; the officer's decision is not for sale, and paying for a fabricated financial profile is immigration fraud that follows you into every future application.

The third is appointment resale and fake job offers: message offers of on-campus or off-campus work arriving before you have even entered the country, which are either advance-fee fraud or a trap into unauthorised employment that ends your status. The fourth is phishing — emails and SMS claiming to be USCIS, SEVP or the embassy, demanding an urgent payment or your SEVIS ID and card details, sometimes with a spoofed caller ID. Government agencies do not ask for payment by gift card, crypto or transfer to an individual, and they do not cold-call with a threat of immediate arrest.

Protect yourself with three habits: verify every fee against a .gov page before paying, never share the SEVIS ID, passport number or bank details with an intermediary who cold-messages you, and get every promise — about admission, work authorisation or timelines — in writing from the school's own DSO or the employer's HR department. When an offer sounds like it removes the hard part of the process, it is taking something from you rather than giving you something.

F-1 at a Glance

F-1 vs J-1 vs M-1

Choosing between them is mostly about the work rules and the aftermath. If your plan depends on building US work experience, F-1 with a STEM degree is the strongest runway; if your programme is sponsored and short with a return-home requirement, J-1 may be the correct and cheaper instrument; and if you want vocational training with no work during study, M-1 is honest about the trade-off. Read the J-1 exchange visitor guide and the M-1 visa guide before committing, because switching classifications later is a change of status, not an upgrade.

Frequently Asked Questions

How We Fact-Check This Page