David_B Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 So my oldest child is rapidly hurtling toward the college application process. Since we're residents of the United States, most of her search is concentrated in this country, but she's also looking into high-level anglophone institutions in other countries (e.g., U of Toronto, U of Melbourne, National University of Singapore, Trinity College Dublin, U of Hong Kong, and so on). She has also been focused, from an early age, on serving as a full-time missionary once she comes of age to do so. However, if she goes to college outside the United States, she'll be on a student visa. So: How possible would it be for her to take a break in her education to serve a mission? I've found a lot of advice on the internet (including in these fora) for students who are coming from other countries to the United States with such plans, but nothing for those who go the other direction. I suppose this makes sense, since that's the most likely direction (what the Brigham Young Universities and all), and the rules are probably different from country to country, but the question remains. Anybody with any experience/knowledge on this who can help someone who doesn't know where to look? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dravin Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 (edited) Anybody with any experience/knowledge on this who can help someone who doesn't know where to look?Contact the relevant embassy/consulate, if they can't tell you right out they can point you in the right direction, at least for the visa issues. For the school you should contact them and ask if taking an 18 month hiatus will cause any issues (particularly if any scholarships are involved). Is there a particular reason she's not just waiting until she gets back from her mission to go to school? It avoids the issue of taking a hiatus to go on a mission and with the age reduction it's only a delay of a year (which she could use to work and save money). Edited January 3, 2013 by Dravin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 Each country have different requirements, for example: A US citizen does not need a Student Visa to study in Singapore. A US citizen have to be enrolled in a College/University to qualify for a student visa to study in Canada. If you are not enrolled, you lose that visa. You will need to re-apply for another visa when you get enrolled again. A US citizen needs a student visa to study in HongKong. To qualify for a visa, you need to be enrolled in a school in HongKong and you need to be under 20 years old. etc. etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_B Posted January 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 Right. And I know that every country has different requirements, but I can't find a place where they're nicely summarized. @Anatess—is there a list somewhere that you got those from? (As for why she can't just postpone college until after her mission, @Dravin, she'll be graduating high school at 17 and women can't start their missions until they're 19. It's still a delay of more than a year for some.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dravin Posted January 4, 2013 Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 (edited) Right. And I know that every country has different requirements, but I can't find a place where they're nicely summarized. @Anatess—is there a list somewhere that you got those from?(As for why she can't just postpone college until after her mission, @Dravin, she'll be graduating high school at 17 and women can't start their missions until they're 19. It's still a delay of more than a year for some.)She can still delay until she's 19 if it means she can go to her 'dream' school (though admittedly it is longer than the just a year if she was graduating at 18), she doesn't have to start college immediately out of high school. Alternatively she can go to school first and leave at 22 if she doesn't think that will pose problems for entering the workforce after (and any loan issues can be sorted out). I can understand why that may not be ideal to some people, but if she gets her heart set on somewhere and a hiatus in the middle of school isn't an option it'll still allow her to go to her school of choice. As far as some nice list summarizing things, I'd be wary of such a list unless it was official in some capacity (put out by the UN or US State Department or something and dated recently). I'd still end up contacting the relevant embassies/consulates (with a broiler plate email/letter it won't be too time consuming to put together). And that still leaves school and scholarship issues to research (once again broiler plate can help, assuming you can't easily find it on the school website). Edited January 4, 2013 by Dravin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayhawk2421 Posted January 4, 2013 Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 Since she is graduating at 17, look at it the opposite way of what has been suggested here. She could go off to college, complete all 4 years and then go on a mission at 21. Just becuase the eligible age has been lowered to 19 does not mean that is the age at which she needs to leave. Also if a mission is something that she has been planning on for some time now, she had been planning to leave at 21 up until the announcement in October. She might be best off staying with that plan inf she is planning to attend university in a foreign country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 4, 2013 Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 Right. And I know that every country has different requirements, but I can't find a place where they're nicely summarized. @Anatess—is there a list somewhere that you got those from?(As for why she can't just postpone college until after her mission, @Dravin, she'll be graduating high school at 17 and women can't start their missions until they're 19. It's still a delay of more than a year for some.)All that is off the top of my head. I went through that process to get a student visa and assisted several cousins in their applications. Dravin is right. Do not go with a general list. Most countries have a government website now that has all that information. They can change without notice, so I wouldn't trust a 3rd party website listing all that stuff. I would even go so far as verifying all the information in the government site by direct person-to-person contact because some countries may not have all the current information on the website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_B Posted January 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 All fair enough advice. I was just asking here in case the legwork had already been done—I was able to find official sites put up by a couple countries explaining details of student visa rules for their citizens that included discussions of breaks in study, but it often makes a difference where you're coming from and I hadn't found anything directed toward US students, so I figured that if something was actually out there, why re-invent the wheel, you know? Anyway, in the end she'll probably go to a US school (if only 'cause there's more of them to choose from, and the process is simpler), but at this point it's early enough in the process that it's all about figuring out what the options are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.