How would someone go about applying to become an exchange student?

Question

Say there was someone from Australia who wanted to come to the States (America) for a year of public schooling. They would have a house arranged to stay at but nothing else worked out so far.

What would be the procedures to go through and how would one go about to obtain a student visa?

Answer 1

You really should work with a placement agency and not try to work things out by yourself.  In order to study in the US, you need what is called an F-1 Visa.  In order to get an F-1 Visa, you must:

-Be accepted to a school

-Show that you have sufficient financial resources to support yourself

-Go through a long and difficult application process

If you want to attend a local public school in the US, you have to prove that you've paid the school district the cost of educating you for the time that you're there.  This is a cost of several thousand dollars.  If you can't prove this, you won't get a visa, so you need to make an arrangement with a school first.

An agency would take care of arranging your visa, housing, etc.  If you want to stay with someone specific, they may be able to work with you if the people you're staying with apply to be an official host family, or you may have to go where they do placements.

Some agencies are:

http://www.studentexchange.org.au/

http://wep.org.au/info/

If you want to try to do this on your own, even though it will be much more difficult, have your host family put you in contact with their local school district.  Here is the US Department of State website on F-1 visas:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/...

Update: Unfortunately, even if they are your relatives, you still need to go through the F-1 visa process, and you still need to pay the local school district.  They should contact their local school for information about getting you in, and you should apply for a visa no later than 120 days before you want to go.

Answer 2

Technology books-http://tfcbook.com/