Who do I write this letter to? Sorry, loooong

[Anonymous]

I think I would keep it very simple and just send the certified letter requesting the paperwork by a certain date. Say you have done this x amount of times and that by now you are are considering legal action.
Everything else that happened in the past is bygones (as much as it sucks) There really isn't much you can do about it. Concentrate on what comes next.
Tons of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I would keep it very simple and just send the certified letter requesting the paperwork by a certain date. Say you have done this x amount of times and that by now you are are considering legal action.
Everything else that happened in the past is bygones (as much as it sucks) There really isn't much you can do about it. Concentrate on what comes next.
Tons of luck.

Best advise yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do agree with 13:33 in a way. I also don't understand why you are getting an MBA if you already have a degree in Special Ed. Why not a Masters in Education? Something about this post seems a bit off. I'm not sure if it is because this set up doesn't sound like most CC I've heard of (a separate medical campus, they are in charge of your visas etc).

OP here.

I'm getting an MBA just to keep my visa. It's one of those for profit schools so it was easy and very cheap. Their campus is across the street from my house (international students can't take more than a few online credits) and they have very easy courses in schedules that are mom friendly.

Every school that welcomes international students is responsible for their visa. They're the ones who will explain you how to keep your status and what you must do. They report to immigration on your behalf to let them know you're compliant (or not) and they issue you authorizations to travel and letters you can show the immigration and American Embassy to support what we're saying during the interviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you hope to gain by writing to somone? Is it just to vent, get something corrected, an apology? Honestly I would just focus on getting your transfer paper work and be glad you are done with the school.

It's a vent and I hope they don't do this to anybody else. Not all of us international students are children for royal family in our home country, you know? It's very expensive, we have sponsors who want to know where their money is going and we lose credibility when such things happen. How I'm gonna explain my sponsor the office here made a mistake? This is first world, back home people worship the US, they don't believe us when we say the mistake was not ours...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't read all the way through, but sorry about your situation. Seems very frustrating.

Thanks.. Yup, very frustrating and expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't mean this as snarky, but once you decide who to send the letter to, I think you need to craft your letter very very carefully with a summary of your complaint clearly in the first paragraph. Your original post is very long and even skipping to the last paragraph didn't help me understand what your issue is.

Oh no, absolutely!

I'm typing this one handed while feeding my baby LOL I'll def take some time to make it short and direct. And have DH proofread for me.

The first post must have taken a really, really long time.

It helps to kill some time... Can't wait for the 5min nursing sessions later on...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Send the old school a certified return receipt letter saying that if they do not provide the docs you have already requested (include copies of your prior requests) it will force you to hire an attorney to subpoena them.

Have you considered sharing your story with an investigative news team?

Although, it's a little upsetting that you took a spot in a program that's very hard to get into, all just to stay in this country, and you're not even working.

Oh don't get me wrong. I'm working (I got my EAD after graduating) and the very difficult course to get into was the NURSING program, the one I always wanted.

The "just to stay in this country" is the MBA, and my intent is to keep my family together. My husband is working here and I have a child. I'll do whatever is legal to keep us together.

What would a news team do for me? I'm curious now...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What school?

My general advice would be to deal with the individual problems individually. Yes, overall, they snowballed into bigger problems. But if you combine them, people will feel inclined to disregard you. (No one wants to deal with generalizations, like, your school ruined my life. It'll just make you sound crazy.)

So, if you have specific complaints with a specific professor, I'd recommend talk to the dean. Or ask about an ombudsman (ombudsperson) or someone who deals with student concerns.

That said, I'd say that the better the school, the better the service. Sounds like this isn't a great school. Feel free to share your bad experiences on review sites, etc., but keep it brief and straightforward. Again, if you say the school ruined your life, you'll look like the crazy one. If you say, "administrative inefficiency delayed important paper" and "school supported professor who seemed to have a grudge with me," you'll sound more reasonable.

That's such a great idea, thanks a lot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Although, it's a little upsetting that you took a spot in a program that's very hard to get into, all just to stay in this country, and you're not even working.

She is an international student paying international student tuition!! I'm sure the school was happy to have her paying all that money.

Actually, the IS's tuition is what really keeps the school going. One would think they should do a good job to keep us but seems like they have no interest in doing their job.

[Anonymous]

Wait...if you have a visa to work here, why do you need a student visa?visa

[Anonymous]

Op, you can't fault the school for not getting back to you over Thanksgiving weekend. Both my undergrad and grad schools were totally shut down from wed afternoon to Monday morning. I still think you need to take some acceptability over not having your papers in order. You should have at least double checked.

[Anonymous]

I don't think a news crew will really do much. You graduated, they did not take your money and scam you. Hard to prove a teacher didn't like you and that's why you failed. I don't know....this is all a bit odd.

[Anonymous]

I'll respond in bold under your responses. Thanks for taking the time...

Anonymous wrote:Okay. I'm going to give this a try!
OP, while you have an a collection of unfortunate incidents, I think you might have a problem turning this into a "global" complaint because there are different issues coming up at different points.

1."Well, I went home, did what I have to do and headed to the airport to return to the US. Well, what was my surprise when I tried to check in I learned I would not be allowed to board the place because one of my papers was expired!!! This was Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I had a final on Monday morning."
I definitely don't have a lot of knowledge about this kind of thing, but your papers being expired--that's actually something you should have checked on before you got the plane and left the country, right? I get that they might have made an error on their end, but you didn't see that there was something wrong with the dates? While in a perfect world you could rely on support staff to always be accurate, we all have experiences where that is not the case. Also, there's no way you can expect them to be able to answer calls during the Thanksgiving holiday. Even once the holiday is over, it's definitely harder to rectify something after an expiration date than before, right? So, while I sympathize and understand it was unbelievably stressful and expensive, I'm not sure that it's the schools fault that you were out of the country with expired papers, or that your expired papers delayed your return and caused you to miss the enrollment period

No. Actually that's the school's job. Once I change majors or anything in my status changes I inform the school and they issue a new set of papers for me to carry around to prove I'm legal (because my visa stamped in my passport doesn't work for that). Then, I ask for an authorization to travel, they have to get this paper and sign, date and write down when I'm supposed to return. They also write letters to explain my situation (if I have finals, a presentation, whatever) to back me up when I face the interview with immigration upon admittance to the country on my return or when I go to the interview in the American embassy to have my visa stamped again. The papers they gave me were expired and with wrong information. They said I didn't not have to stamp my passport again so I tried to return that way and the lady checking passports at the security check point warned me I would not be allowed beyond that point without proper paperwork and new stamp.

2. The really bad professor who was anti-immigrant.
Here's where I think you might have more of a chance, although ideally you would have brought this to the attention of the school as it was happening and/or immediately after you received the bad grade. It would have been easier to document instances of the teacher's bad behavior. Perhaps you would have been able have fellow classmate verify the unfair treatment you received. Again, while I think you are right to be upset, I'm not sure that saying something NOW, when it seems to be at least a semester in the past, is going to lead to a good resolution.
Unfortunately this is the least of my concerns. I still have all the emails she sent me so I guess I can prove she gave me bad dates for the lab, etc.. well, we'll see.

Ugh. I do feel for you, OP, and do think you need to speak to people. I think an in-person might be better than a letter--it's so easy to let a letter just languish in someone's inbox. Maybe the specific office that deals with International Students? They need to be a part of this discussion, and will tell you what other offices need to be informed. Good luck!

Thanks a lot and I'll wait until this transfer is effective so they can't mess up my status anymore. Once I'm safe in the new school I'll take action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do agree with 13:33 in a way. I also don't understand why you are getting an MBA if you already have a degree in Special Ed. Why not a Masters in Education? Something about this post seems a bit off. I'm not sure if it is because this set up doesn't sound like most CC I've heard of (a separate medical campus, they are in charge of your visas etc).

OP here.

I'm getting an MBA just to keep my visa. It's one of those for profit schools so it was easy and very cheap. Their campus is across the street from my house (international students can't take more than a few online credits) and they have very easy courses in schedules that are mom friendly.

Every school that welcomes international students is responsible for their visa. They're the ones who will explain you how to keep your status and what you must do. They report to immigration on your behalf to let them know you're compliant (or not) and they issue you authorizations to travel and letters you can show the immigration and American Embassy to support what we're saying during the interviews.

They are responsible for certifying your student status and letting the government know that you are in status with letters that indicate that fact. Period. They are NOT responsible for your visa or your travel authorization. Those are official United States Government documents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do agree with 13:33 in a way. I also don't understand why you are getting an MBA if you already have a degree in Special Ed. Why not a Masters in Education? Something about this post seems a bit off. I'm not sure if it is because this set up doesn't sound like most CC I've heard of (a separate medical campus, they are in charge of your visas etc).

OP here.

I'm getting an MBA just to keep my visa. It's one of those for profit schools so it was easy and very cheap. Their campus is across the street from my house (international students can't take more than a few online credits) and they have very easy courses in schedules that are mom friendly.

Every school that welcomes international students is responsible for their visa. They're the ones who will explain you how to keep your status and what you must do. They report to immigration on your behalf to let them know you're compliant (or not) and they issue you authorizations to travel and letters you can show the immigration and American Embassy to support what we're saying during the interviews.

They are responsible for certifying your student status and letting the government know that you are in status with letters that indicate that fact. Period. They are NOT responsible for your visa or your travel authorization. Those are official United States Government documents.

The school issues the I-20 and they need to sign it for me to travel. If they don't sign it I can't re-enter the country. The I-20 is the travel authorization if you're an F1. While I'm responsible for my visa, I can't get one out of the blue. I need supporting paperwork from the institution I'm attending. And yes they're responsible for educating us regarding what we need to travel back and forth. I found conflicting information when I read the information online and went to ISO to clarify. I asked school if I would need a new stamp on my visa they said NO and I trusted them. Turns out I needed a new one and for me to get a new one they needed to send me the support paperwork, I needed signatures from my sponsor, etc.