After much effort trying to cajole my lazy bones into a sitting position, I called the school to schedule an appointment with the immigration advisor. Yup, everything is good, I am set for my 1:30 pm appointment. Except that wasn't the end. Not five minutes later I received a call from the office, asking me what's my purpose for the appointment, even though I had already explained to them in the first phone call.
"Well, you see, my family and I are dealing with a very complicated immigration process at the moment, so at some point in the Fall semester the embassy in my home country would call me up for a visa interview. So I was wondering if it's possible for me to just take the semester off," I said, praying that the lady on the other end wouldn't ask for every single detail about the immigration process.
"You can't take the semester off. What you can do though, is to fly back to your home country for a couple of weeks when you have to attend your interview, but you'll have to inform your professors about it. Do you gave an I-485?"
What?
"I'm sorry, I don't know if you're familiar with the whole process of acquiring an immigrant visa, but the process in Malaysia will take at least a month. Also, what's an I-485?" I asked.
"An I-485 is an application form for registering permanent residents."
I ransacked my brain for that form, and I realized I haven't filed anything of that sort.
"No...I don't have that form. I do have a...DS-260 though," I said, my fingers running wildly across the computer keyboard to find the DS-260 forms.
"No, a DS-260 won't do. What other documents do you have?" the lady on the other end asked.
I thought for a while and decided I'm not having this conversation because frankly, this is just dumb. Why would I have an I-485 when the very reason for my strong desire to go back to Malaysia is so that I can attend the interview, get approved to register to be a permanent resident?
"I'm sorry, I don't have any other documents to show, but you can speak to my lawyer."
The rest of the morning passed by in a frantic flurry. I couldn't get hold of my lawyer, so I decided to show up at the university anyway for the 1:30 appointment. I had exactly 45 minutes to get dressed, eat and show up at the university with the right documents. So I got dressed, ate a sandwich from McDonald's dollar menu and dashed into the International Services Center. I was in there for less than 15 minutes.
Here's what happened: the lady whom I had spoken to earlier basically repeated everything from the phone call. I was dissatisfied. I drove all the way to school just to hear that the only reason they would approve my request is that if I have some sort of medical emergency, which I don't. Feeling frustrated, helpless and angry at the United States of America and her bureaucracy, I placed my hands on the desk (while trying to keep my cool), looked at the lady and asked, "What do you suggest that I do then? Surely you can't expect me to be enrolled in classes only to be dropped out later for not attending them?"
"I would definitely suggest that you write to us and request for an early withdrawal. We can definitely do that for you but you'll have to leave the States within 15 days of your student visa termination."
What? That's like, my plan all along.
I admit that my communication skills aren't top-notch, but I'm not that bad of a listener, and I paid attention to all the international student orientations I've ever attended in my entire life! What happened was the immigration advisor assumed that I wasn't aware of the biggest requirement for a student to maintain his or her student visa, and that is to enroll in 12 credit hours per semester. She thought I was going to sit in the U.S and do nothing until the immigration interview. One would think at some point the immigration advisor would bring that option up instead of draining me of hope. So this was all a miscommunication.
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