Students Who Travel outside U.S. beyond 5 Months

Question: I am an international student in a U.S. college with F-1 visa. Due to a family reason, I want to take about half year break from my current study in U.S. to go back my home country. Can I come back to U.S. to continue my education with the F-1 visa? Answer: Your F-1 visa may be automatically cancelled when you are not enrolled and spend more than five months abroad. Under this circumstance, your F-1 visa is not lawful because a F-1 visa is only valid for continuing student. After five months, your are no longer considered a continuing student. Therefore, even if the visa stamp in the passport has not expired, it is invalid and, if presented at the port of entry, the officer can cancel it and deny your admission. But if the break is less than five months, you can return on the unexpired F-1 with a valid I-20 form endorsed by the school. http://www.greencardapply.com/question/question13/question13_0414.htm http://www.greencardapply.com http://www.greencardfamily.com