I'm trying to find information for a friend who has a J-1 visa and recently applied for a F-1 as her DS-2019 expired.
She is supposed to start classes on Monday, but for personal reasons, she can't commit to the schedule she was assigned and apparently has no option to change it.
My questions are:
Does she HAVE to enroll for the fall semester even though she's not, in theory, an international student yet?
Can she just wait to take classes whenever she gets approved and have the opportunity to transfer?
Can she transfer while she's pending COS?
Her problem is not that she doesn't want to take classes, but that she can't do it on the schedule she was given.
The school is being very uncooperative about changing her classes so she would be better off in a different college, or in a ESL language center where classes begins every 4 weeks, but I believe she's not allowed to transfer while pending COS.
I really wish I knew more about grace periods and requirements, but my knowledge is only for F-1s (being one myself) but not for J-1s and the process in between.
Please let me know if you need more details, I do not have specific dates with me, but I could find out.
Thanks for your time, hope I get a response soon since she only has a couple of days to un-register for classes without losing her money.

