Visa Application & Entry into the United States

First, congratulations, and welcome to Duke! The International House website has lots of information on orientation and settling into the Durham area. Contact them well before you plan to travel. They can help you make a smooth move to the United States. Visit the International House website for more information. The Visa Services website has lots of information on visas and related matters.

This FAQ appears on Visa Services website. In this FAQ we will discuss the general visa steps from your date of admission or invitation until you arrive at Duke. We will address some of them in more detail below.

1. Your school or department will send you Part 2 of the Request for Temporary Visa Form (RTVF). You will receive only Part 2, not Part 1. You need to complete Part 2, sign it, and return it to your school or department at the address they specify.
2. Your school or department will complete Part 1 of the RTVF describing your intended activities at Duke.
3. After receiving Part 2 from you, the school or department will send the complete RTVF, Parts 1 and 2, to Visa Services to let us know that you have been admitted or invited to Duke and the details of your visit.
4. After we receive both Part 1 and Part 2 from the school or department we will prepare your visa documents.
5. We will send your visa documents to you at the address you specified on the RTVF.
6. You must use those original documents to apply for your visa stamp at a U.S. embassy or consulate. [Note: Canadian citizens are not required to get visa stamps.]
7. You must use your passport, visa stamp, and the visa documents we send you to apply at a U.S. port of entry for admission into the U.S. in the proper nonimmigrant status.
8. You arrive in Durham and check in with Visa Services, International House, and your school or department.

Like many governments, the U.S. government uses letters and numbers to designate specific forms. In general the documents will identify you, your relationship to Duke, the duration of your visit, and your source(s) and amount(s) of funding. Here are the ones most often seen on a university campus.

The management and timeline on your documents depends on the kind of visa stamp you will be getting. Some documents are under Duke's direct control and others are not. The following chart will give you basic information. Regarding the time line, remember that Visa Services begins counting from the date that we have everything from your school admissions office or from your department that we need to issue your document or file it with DHS. Students and scholars should not send us a partial or incomplete form or set of documents so that we can "get started." We will not begin work on such files. Completed forms must be returned to your school or department. If you and your school or department have done your forms and documentation properly you deserve our attention first, before those who have not been so careful or accurate. Do not start counting from the day you put things in the mail. IMPORTANT WARNING! DO NOT MAKE YOUR TRAVEL PLANS OR AIRPLANE RESERVATIONS BASED ON THESE TIMES. These are only estimates. Wait until you have the documents and the appropriate visa stamp in hand before you make travel plans.

We know that for all of you, getting your documents and applying for your visa stamp is important. We process requests in the order that we receive them if they are complete and have all the necessary supporting documents.

For the F and the J under Duke's control, consider the 15-day processing time quoted above as firm. We must produce those documents out of a federal government database. Sometimes we can do that almost immediately. Sometimes there are data base delays on the government side that we cannot control. Plan on 15 days and be pleasantly surprised if processing is faster.

For the ECFMG and other J programs and for the H-1B and O-1, note that most of the process is not under Duke's control. DHS controls the H-1B and O-1 and those processing times can take months. DHS offers a very expensive ($1,225) Premium Processing Service (PPS) that can usually reduce the processing time at DHS to about 20 days. Generally only the department can request PPS, not the alien employee. Only your department can decide if PPS is appropriate in your case. If you have question about that, you may wish to contact your Duke department.

We assume that standard international airmail will take at least 15 days. We can mail items to you by express mail if you or your school or department is willing to pay express mail charges. You need to make express mail arrangements with your school or department and they will advise Visa Services of how they want the documents mailed.

There are three primary areas of concern.

1. Have you provided all of the health information and vaccination certificates that Duke requires? If you are an incoming student, you were given instructions in that regard with your admission material. Follow those instructions and contact the admissions office of your school if you have questions. If your are coming as a scholar contact your department regarding any Duke health clearances you might need before or after you arrive. In particular physicians, nurses, and other health care workers coming into clinical areas should contact their Duke supervisors for specific requirements.
2. Do you need health clearances to apply for or be granted a visa stamp? You need to check directly with the U.S. embassy or consulate to learn if there are any special provisions in effect at the time that you apply. You may also visit the travel warning and health information webs sites for more information.
3. Will there be difficulties or quarantine when you enter the U.S.? All ports of entry have the right to review the health of travelers and to isolate persons if necessary. However, such actions are very rare. The organizations that generally have the most up-to-date information on such actions are the airlines. Airlines make the same scheduled flights to the same cities repeatedly. Check first with the airline you are using to find out what its recent experience has been on the flight you plan to take.

Even before you receive your visa documents from Duke, you may want to visit the U.S. Department of State (DOS) web site for general information.

• Consular Affairs: This webpage includes how to check visa processing times and information on specific types of Visas (F,J,H, TN, etc)
• Visa Application Process
• Basic information about Visas

You will notice that forms collect basic information about who you are, where you have lived and worked, your planned activities in the U.S., previous visits to the U.S., family members in the U.S., and so on. Answer the questions truthfully. Do not try to "second guess" or predict what the officer might think about this answer or that one. Just answer the questions to the best of your knowledge and ability, but do not "tell your life story" and add so much information that you complicate your situation. The consular officer must look at all of this information to determine if you are eligible for the visa classification that you want, and whether any part of your application needs further review or clarification.

Consular officers will be looking at 4 major areas to determine if you are eligible for a visa stamp:

• What is your home country or other countries in which you have lived? Citizens or residents of certain countries, such as those that the U.S. government has identified as sponsors of terrorism, must have their applications reviewed closely, and may have to complete additional forms.
• How does your intended study or work relate to the Technology Alert List (TAL) or "sensitive areas"? The TAL lists fields of study or expertise in which the U.S. wants to limit exports of certain technologies. Although in the past most of these have related to military applications, supercomputing, and certain kinds of engineering, the list has been revised in recent years to include a number of science and engineering areas that might relate to chemical, biological, nuclear, or cyber weapons, or terrorism. If you will be studying at the graduate level or doing research in one of these areas, the consular officer will have to review your application closely in this regard. While it may seem ridiculous that a graduate student in botany or a researcher in urban planning would be a "security" or "export control" risk, consular officers are required by current law to follow certain review procedures. This kind of review can take several weeks.
• What are your intentions after you finish your program in the U.S.? The F and J visas, the TN-Canada/Mexico, and the Free Trade (H-1B1)-Chile/Singapore require "nonimmigrant intent." If you are applying for an F or J visa stamp, the burden is upon you to show that you have sufficiently strong ties to your home country to cause you to return there after you complete your education or research. If the officer believes that you do not intend to return home, or that you may use the F or J status as a way of entering the U.S. in order to stay here, the officer must deny the visa stamp application based on your "immigrant intent." This decision belongs entirely to the consular officer. If you are coming from a country that historically has a high "non-return" rate, then your burden of proof will be more difficult. You will have to convince the officer that you are the exception to the statistics that your fellow countrymen have already established. Similarly, if you are coming from a country with current economic, political, or civil difficulties, you will have a heavy burden of proof to show that you are not just "escaping" conditions in your country. This seems like a harsh law, but remember that the intention of the law, which was passed in 1952, has always been to promote "exchange," not immigration. Note that the "nonimmigrant intent" rule does not apply to the H-1B, so the H-1B does not have to prove ties to the home country. The H-1B may have "dual intent" - the intention to come to the U.S. temporarily and perhaps to stay longer later in some other visa classification. (Warning. Do not confuse the H-1B with the Free Trade H-1B1 for Chile and Singapore.) The O-1 does not have a specific "dual intent" provision, but the O-1 does not require proof of strong ties to the home country.
• Your F or J data in the SEVIS/consular database. If you are applying for an F or J visa stamp, the officer must be able to locate your "SEVIS" data in the consular database. SEVIS is the federal database that Duke and other schools use to generate your I-20 for F status or your DS-2019 for J status. If Duke has issued an I-20 or a DS-2019 to you or to members of your family, then that data is in the SEVIS database. If the consular officer cannot find it, it means that DHS or DOS has not yet transferred that data from SEVIS to the other database to which consular officers have access. If we express mail your documents to you, you may receive them before the data transfer. If you go to the U.S. embassy or consulate immediately, they may not be able to find your data. It should transfer in a few days. If the transfer takes longer than one week from the issue date of the I-20 or DS-2019, let us know at Visa Services and we will ask DHS and DOS to verify the data transfer. Remember, if you hold the I-20 or the DS-2019, Duke has already placed your data in the database and we cannot control the transfer schedule within the government.

A valid passport, which will be valid for at least six months beyond the date you plan to enter the U.S. If your current passport is about to expire, you may need to get a new passport before you apply for a visa stamp. The consular post can give you more details. We strongly encourage you to have a passport that is valid well into the future before you apply for your visa stamp and travel to the U.S.

There is no "magic" letter or document that we can give you to guarantee a visa stamp. Our discussions with consular officers and our experience has shown that additional letters cannot tell the officer anything new that will be helpful for your case. You already have admission or invitation letters and documents to show that Duke really wants you here for study, teaching, research, and so on. You already have evidence of funding. And you must provide evidence of your nonimmigrant intent - Duke cannot do that. Your best approach is to be prepared, and to fill out forms and answer questions truthfully.

We recommend that you organize your passport and all of your visa documents and supporting documents in one place so that they are easy to find and manage. Prepare a separate small package for each family member that contains:

• After receiving your passport from the consulate, verify you received the correct visa stamp/foil. F-1 visa is for a student. A J-1 visa is for a J-1 student or scholar. F-2 and J-2 stamps are for dependents. The visa stamp cannot be corrected at the port of entry or after you enter the U.S. If you enter in the wrong visa category, it will affect your academic program as well as delay any funding you receive from Duke.
• Form I-20, DS-2019, or I-797 approval notice, and the letters and instructions that came with them from Visa Services.
• Evidence that you have paid the SEVIS fee if you are entering in F or J status.
• Evidence of funding as appropriate to the visa classification and your intended activities in the U.S.
• Contact information for International House.
• Contact information for your Duke school or department.
• Contact information for Visa Services.

Before you board the plane make sure you have those packets with you, on your person, not in your checked luggage.

Two factors control when you can travel to the U.S. - your visa stamp and the starting date on your visa document.

You must have the visa documents, a passport, and a visa stamp to enter the U.S. While it may be cheaper to book your travel far in advance, you are taking a big risk. If you do not have a visa stamp, you cannot travel, and you may lose money canceling and rebooking. We strongly recommend that you wait until you have the visa stamp in your passport before you book your travel.

Those entering in F and J status may enter no more than 30 days before the start date on your visa document (I-20 or DS-2019). If you attempt to travel earlier than that the airline can refuse to carry you, and the U.S. immigration officer at the port of entry can refuse to let you in and send you back home on the next plane.

Those entering in other visa classes such as H-1B, O-1, or TN may generally enter 10 days before the start date on their documents. Port of entry officers have allowed a little flexibility in the past for earlier entry, but times have changed. Do not assume that you can enter more than 10 days early, just because you heard about someone who did in the past.

Be sure to book your travel so that you have several hours between your arrival time at the port of entry and any connecting flights that get you to Durham. See question #16 below.

The port where you first enter the U.S. and check in with the immigration officer is called the "port of entry" or POE. The destination for most of our students and scholars is Durham, NC, but some people come to our facilities in other parts of the country. If you are coming to Durham, your POE may be the Raleigh-Durham (RDU) airport or it may be an airport at a larger city with a connecting flight to RDU. For example, you might fly into Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Miami, and do the immigration work there before you continue to RDU.

At the POE you will stand in a line for persons who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. You will need to present all of your visa documents.

Please read this U.S. Customs and Border Protection post regarding the Automated Form I-94.

At this point it is too late to remember to take all of your visa documents out of that very secure place in your checked luggage, which is probably far away in the Customs area by now and completely unavailable. Remember, per Q13 above, you should have your documents with you.

The officer will review your documents and may ask you a few questions. As part of the biometric data collection that many countries are doing, you may be asked to give two fingerprints as well.

If you are entering in F or J status, the officer will probably ask you to step out of the line and go into the office for additional review of your documents. Don't panic! This is standard procedure for F and J. The officer must either scan the bar code on your I-20 or DS-2019 or manually enter your file number to update your SEVIS record. It may take some time to do this, and you will be glad that you planned extra time between the arrival and connecting flights. See question #13 above.

If you are entering in F or J status, and everything is in order, the officer will stamp your passport with your date of entry, will write in your visa classification (e.g. F-1, F-2, J-1, J-2), and will indicate the date by which you must leave the U.S. as "D/S," which stands for "Duration of Status." If your passport is marked D/S, you are permitted to remain in the U.S. for the duration of your educational or scholarly program as long as you maintain your lawful F or J status. Your specific departure date is determined by the end date on your Form I-20 or Form DS-2019, and by the date that you end your study or scholarly activity. We will give you more information about this when you arrive and register in Visa Services. If you enter in F or J status and the stamp you receive in your passport at the port of entry has a departure date instead of D/S, be sure to let us know as soon as you arrive at Duke; this may be an error that requires correction.

If you are entering in H or O status, and everything is in order, the officer will stamp your passport with your date of entry, will write in your visa classification (e.g. H-1B, H-4, O-1, O-3), and will indicate the date by which you must leave the U.S. Usually this date matches the ending date on your I-797 approval notice, but if your passport expires before the end date on the I-797, then the officer may be required to admit you only until the end date of your passport. If the passport and the I-797 end dates do not match, then you need to call that to the attention of the immigration officer - in a polite way. If the situation does not permit a correction there at the POE, do not worry about it. Just make sure you let us know in Visa Services when you register.

Regardless of your visa classification, make sure that the visa class on your passport is the same as that on your visa stamp and visa document. This table will help you determine the documents you need.

The last thing the officer will do before you leave is to provide you with a sheet with additional instructions on the Form I-94 automation process. You will need this form to request a Social Security or Driver's License. Details about the automation of Form I-94 can be found in this U.S. Customs and Border Protection post regarding the Automated Form I-94.

You will not be able to print the automated I-94 at the airport but as soon as you arrive on campus, find a computer lab on campus and print this form. The Mass Registration handout you received with your visa document will provide computer lab locations.

You will also go through Customs at the POE to be sure that you are not bringing in forbidden items such as food, plants, animals, firearms, or drugs.

Stop for a moment and congratulate yourself on managing a very complicated process. When you have had a time to catch your breath, remember that you need to check in with three offices:

• International House will help you with settling in and give you more information about orientation. Per Q1, you should have contacted International House earlier for help with the transition to Duke.
• Your school or department will have information on getting registered, employed, or otherwise connected to Duke.

If you are a new student you should plan to attend the mass registration scheduled for your school or group as noted in the information sent to you.

If you are a physician who will receive training at the house staff level you need to check in with the Office of Graduate Medical Education and plan to attend the orientation scheduled for your department or division.

If you are a registered nurse you need to contact your nurse manager regarding your orientation.

If you will be employed you will need to apply for a Social Security Number (SSN). The Visa Services and International House will help you with that. Please do not attempt to get the SSN on your own, as an improper filing could delay getting the number for many months.

• Duke's Visa Services department, will review you documents, register you in the international records, and verify that everything is in order, so you may begin your activities with Duke. When you come to Visa Services remember to bring your passport, your automatic Form I-94 printout, and all of your visa documents.

If you are an employee and have made an appointment to register, allow about 30 minutes to complete the process in our office.

If you are a student, you will usually need to attend one of the orientation sessions organized by International House or come to one of the group registrations we do for students at Visa Services. You can also complete the E-Registration (ppsx) and bring your documents to our office between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday.

You just "walk in" you may have to wait a while to see an advisor. Remember that those who have appointments are seen first.

Contact Visa Services by sending a message to VisaHelp@duke.edu or call our office at 919-681-8472.