British Expats - Can someone study on a B1/B2 visa?

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Can someone study on a B1/B2 visa?

A friend of mine from Brazil wants to take an intensive ELS course in the US, starting March 1st and ending April 1st. He already has a B1/B2 visa, but he was told that he needs an F1 visa to take this course. He has not registered for it yet.

My question is if he needs to obtain the F1 visa to study for this course? He would like to start at the beginning of March, as I mentioned above, but the consulate in Sao Paulo says the earliest time he can have his interview is March 6th. Should he register for the course and come on the tourist visa? Would that be sufficient to study for this short class? I always thought that you could use the B1/B2 for short and intensive courses. In fact, I know a few people who have done this. Perhaps they were taking the classes illegally.

What should he do?

Re: Can someone study on a B1/B2 visa?

Quote:

Originally posted by Cykotronic
A friend of mine from Brazil wants to take an intensive ELS course in the US, starting March 1st and ending April 1st. He already has a B1/B2 visa, but he was told that he needs an F1 visa to take this course. He has not registered for it yet.

My question is if he needs to obtain the F1 visa to study for this course? He would like to start at the beginning of March, as I mentioned above, but the consulate in Sao Paulo says the earliest time he can have his interview is March 6th. Should he register for the course and come on the tourist visa? Would that be sufficient to study for this short class? I always thought that you could use the B1/B2 for short and intensive courses. In fact, I know a few people who have done this. Perhaps they were taking the classes illegally.

What should he do?

He should get the student visa, and then come to take the course. He needs to have the correct visa for his purpose. They wouldn't let you take a short intensive flight training course. They used to allow studying if it was "incidental" to the purpose of the trip, but they aren't allowing that anymore.