Would this person need a student visa?

Question

this one is completely hypothetical, A Mexican citizen that lives in Tijuana wants to go to school at say San Diego state, he will as many other people do, commute to San Diego and come back home at night, the Mexican citizen will not work nor go pass the San diego county line at any time (in case that matters) No weekends, no sleepovers just school and thats it.

The Mexican citizen does have a visitor visa which of course he needs just to cross the border, but does he really need a student visa even if he doesn't live in the US?

Answer 1

,I would say yes. If he's coming to the US with the purpose of going to school he's a student not a tourist and therefore needs a tourist visa. Also as a non-local he'd have to pay tuition.

Answer 2

All foreign students are required to obtain a foreign student's visa to attend school.  It does not matter if you commute from another country each day to attend classes.  If you do not obtain the proper student visa, you cannot get credit for your classes or obtain a degree.

Answer 3

Of course he/she needs a visa, you can't enter the border everyday to study without any student visa. Here a link: http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/studyin...

Answer 4

Of course he needs a student visa, as that's his primary purpose for coming to the US, not tourism. Coming over every day will look suspicious in short order and the Border Patrol will have many questions. The hypothetical student won't have any good answers and would end up losing  the tourist visa.

Edit: I thought your hypothetical friend here was trying to avoid being illegal, considering he's supposedly going to cross back and forth between Tijuana and San Diego. If the school thought he was an illegal resident, they might well allow him to attend classes, so the problem with your scenario isn't the school, it's the Border Patrol, and they're not likely to play along with this for very long.