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I am an exchange student coming to the US from Italy. I would like to visit my family whom resides in the US in late October; 2 weeks before my student visa is active. My student visa will be active on November 6th.

I currently have an active ESTA, and I wanted to know if I would be allowed entry to the US using my ESTA, and be allowed to stay within the US until my student visa is active. I don't want to go back to Italy, I just want to enter the US 2 weeks prior to my visa being activated. Will they let me stay in the country?

Relaxed
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Aurora cardone
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1 Answers1

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I currently have an active ESTA, and I wanted to know if I would be allowed entry to the US using my ESTA, and be allowed to stay within the US until my student Visa is active.

No.

Entry on ESTA disallows changing status. In the US, the "visa" and the "status" are separate concepts. "Visa" is what allows you to request entry for a certain purpose. Once you enter you no longer need the visa. You enter with a given "status", which comes with certain rights and responsibilities. ESTA allows entering only with a B1/B2 status, for up to 3 months, with no extensions or status changes. In order to study you need to be in F1 status (or a couple of other letters, none of which is B). So you'll need to change status from B1/B2 to F1 while in the US, which is not allowed.

With student/employment visas, you can usually enter before the official start date of the program. For F1, IIRC, you can enter up to 30 days before the official program start date.

oh whatever
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