PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - M1 Visa or no Visa and SEVIS approved schools in the USA
Old 19th Dec 2010, 00:23
  #45 (permalink)  
lollots82
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Lund
Age: 41
Posts: 4
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I am surprised that you have signed nothing with your existing school.. I would have expected you to have signed something e.g. agreeing to them to get your visa, TSA fees etc. Did they arranged your accommodation etc.
They simply sent the I-20 then I had to do EVERYTHING on my own: TSA, fingerprinting, SEVIS, Medical etc..
They arranged accommodation which I took for the first two weeks, then moved out to a nicer place (and that's when they short changed me on the refund).

You are right in saying that they are not explaining anything to me in detail.
I found out so many things just by going to speak to the new school and clearly I still don't have the full picture. The problem with the old school is that the person in charge (who is not the owner btw) is so rude that I am avoiding having to deal with him, and I trust none of his words, he makes false claims just to make do what he wants. For instance, I am sure that if I had asked if a transfer was possible (without consulting this forum or the other school), they would have said no, the same way they have already said I can only follow a part 141 course even though I told them I was sure of the contrary.

I know it is drastic after only 9 hours, but as I said and as you can read, it really isn't a nice environment to train in and it's making me hating the whole flying experience.

If you have taken 4 weeks so far (implied if you say you have 11 months left on a 12 month max stay) and only got 9 hours done - that is extremely slow progress.
Typically, many folks are close to completion at that stage with 45+ hours.

Any reason for the very slow progress? How many hours a week are you in the Flight School and training?
I have 10 hours of ground on top of the 9 hours of flying. I didn't really do anything on my first week or so because I was just settling in - you know, buying phones, looking for a nice place to rent, etc.. and as per I-20 my course was due to start on Dec 12th (so I assumed I was fine since you can enter the US up to 30 days before starting your course)
After that period, now I am going to school 5 times a week: flying 3 days, one day I watch the DVDs, one day I do ground - though I have only been able to fly once this week due to maintenance/weather.
So lets say this week I could have followed the normal schedule, I would have about 12/13 hours flying in 3 weeks.
The new school actually said that for them I would be fulfilling my requirements as a full-time student as long as I go there 4 days out of a 7 days period. No mention of hours.
So yes I am proceeding slowly but I don't think I'm doing anything unlawful?

Also - to expedite the whole process - you would have been better to have got your Written done and dusted before you left your home country thereby allowing you to focus on a Part 61 Flight Training course (which has to be conducted at a Part 141 SEVIS approved school).
True, unfortunately I did not do my research properly and now I am paying (in all senses) for it.
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