In order to maintain your immigration status, you must be enrolled in a full-time course load and making satisfactory progress toward your program’s completion. You should work with your academic advisor to ensure you are enrolled in the correct courses each semester.

Plan to be in a full course load each semester.

Note: Audited courses do not count toward the full course of study requirement. Calculate accordingly if you plan to audit a class.

Read this page thoroughly, and talk to ISSS about your plans if you have any doubts.

What is Full-time enrollment? And when is it required?

  • See further below for online course restrictions
  • Undergraduates: 12 credit minimum
  • Graduates: 9 credit minimum
    • Graduate vet med residents and graduate computer science students–talk to ISSS for more info about your minimum enrollment requirements.
  • For each Fall & Spring semester that you continue your studies, full-time enrollment is required.
    • Thus, Fall and Spring are required semesters.
  • If summer is your first or final semester of working on your studies, full-time enrollment is required then, too.
    • In these cases, that first or final summer semester is a required semester.
  • If you were in valid international status studying here in a Spring semester and will continue your studies here in the Fall, the summer in between is a vacation period; enroll freely or not at all.
  • Talk to ISSS if you have more questions about any of this.
  • Sponsored, Exchange, or Scholarship Students
    • When it comes to funding, your sponsor may have further restrictions on your enrollment in terms of what they will or will not pay for. Talk with your sponsor for more info.

Think you Need to Under-Enroll?

If you are unable study full time or need to withdraw from a class mid-semester, please connect with an international student advisor during our Open Advising sessions.

We can guide you on how best to maintain your status through your struggles.

Maintaining status could include applying for Concurrent Enrollment, an academic or medical Reduced Credit Load, Planned Leave, or Recovery Course registration, depending on your situation.

Sponsored students should talk to their sponsor about how these options may interact with funding requirements.

Online course restrictions

International students gain their F-1 or J-1 status in order to attend an in-person academic program in the United States.

As such, online courses, regardless of reason, are highly restricted.

A desire to avoid CSU fees doesn’t change these restrictions. Our Estimated Expenses account for a completely in-person, full-time course load.

    • F-1 students may only count 1 course, or 3 credits if multiple courses, of online/distance learning per semester toward their full course load each required semester.
      • During required semesters, F-1 students cannot be exclusively enrolled in online courses, even with an approved RCL for final semester.
    • J-1 students, as of July 1, 2023, may now have one course of distance learning per semester to count towards their full course load.
    • Except for the above note regarding final semester RCL, the level of permitted online course enrollment does not change with an academic RCL; an RCL just drops what the acceptable floor is for enrollment. In other words, RCL approval changes what ‘full-time’ means for the student that semester.
      • For example, if Jake has an approved final semester RCL permitting him to drop down to 6 credits, he’s permitted to have one online class, or no more than 3 credits (if multiple online classes), to count towards that 6 credit minimum.

Sponsored, Exchange, or Scholarship Students

You may have additional enrollment expectations, prohibitions, or requirements in order to receive funding.

In other words, just because something is permitted for your immigration record doesn’t mean it will qualify for payment from your sponsor.

For example, your sponsor might not pay for any online courses. You may have additional enrollment expectations or requirements, such as grades or GPA or permitted major.

It is your responsibility to check in with your sponsor, home institution, or scholarship provider to identify if they have enrollment requirements/restrictions that you must meet to maintain your status and funding in these programs.

When in doubt, reach out!

If you have any questions or concerns about how to meet your enrollment requirements, please connect with us either through advising or email. We want you to succeed, and enrollment violations are the most common reason students lose their status!