14 y/o Nephew coming to stay on tourist visa - attend public school?
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Anonymous
| Obtaining any public assistance is generally a violation of the tourist visa terms, as are establishing residency without a change of visa. The child could end up barred from eligibility for future entry. |
Anonymous
Meh. Montgomery County has made it clear that we welcome non-citizens and taxpayers are more than happy to fund benefits for them - from schooling to health care. |
Anonymous
Not going to happen. Nobody is coming after a kid. |
Anonymous
School isn't public assistance. The big issue will be health insurance for this kid so depending on the insurance they may not be able to get health insurance. |
Anonymous
| It’s a violation of a tourist visa to enroll in public school. It isn’t the school district that may cause difficulty. It is immigration when they find out he was in the US fir 6 months without a parent. They will figure out he was enrolled in school. |
Anonymous
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Here us what an immigration lawyer posted when I looked into it for my niece.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services documentation states that on a Visitor Visa, someone “violates the conditions of his or her status if the alien enrolls in a course of study.” This is the ultimate takeaway: while children in the United States on a visitor can be admitted to a public school on a Visitor Visa, it is against immigration law for them to attend. If you choose to send them, there is a good chance the he or she will lose the Visitor Visa and potentially lose the chance to get other Visas in the future or even return to the United States. |
Anonymous
This is actually a good reason for OP to have temporary legal custody. That would allow the child to be added to OP’s insurance plan. |
Anonymous
| Dude, its called a tourist visa. You can't enroll him in school. |
Anonymous
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No. It's a direct violation of a B2 visa and there are consequences such as being barred from re-entering the US and obtaining another visa. A visitor visa is not for attending school.
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Anonymous
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MCPS isn’t going to report the kid. How would anyone know that the kid is on a tourist visa.
MCPS doesn’t even have enough staff to enforce the blatant residency fraud that occurs. No way anyone is going to bat an eye if OP enrolls the kid in school with her address as his residence. |
Anonymous
It is establishing residency, though. |
Anonymous
| What kind of visa do exchange students use? Maybe he could get that? |
Anonymous
You would be surprised. I know a couple of unrelated kids using someone else's address who were found out and kicked out of the school. |
Anonymous
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The formal way to do this is to register as an exchange student and come on a J1 visa, not a B2. While it *might work on a B2, it's better for him long-term to do it all legally now, so he doesn't face future immigration questions/problems.
See these MCPS resources: https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/jearc.pdf https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/forms/pdf/335-66.pdf And the State website on the same: https://j1visa.state.gov/programs/secondary-school-student/ I had positive experiences with the MCPS international office in the past; suggest you call for more information. |
Anonymous
The only time I've ever seen families get kicked out due to residency cheating as if there was some issue with the child where the counselor or social worker got involved |