Sorry for having another, quite complicated visa problem... it goes like this...
Am going with my boyfriend to Santa Clara for 4 weeks at the end of June - he is going to a hospital for a medical placement, whilst i plan on taking a spanish course at the university. My boyfriend has a contact out at the uni, who has advised that he can go out on a tourist visa and he'll be able to convert to a student one while he is out there. (i plan on going out on a tourist visa also, and am not sure if i would need to then convert to a student to do a course?) Only thing is, we plan to travel for a further 4wks - and i have heard that it's not possible/difficult to convert from a student visa back to a tourist one - is this true?
To make matters more complicated, we have booked our flights 64days apart (though visas - or at least tourist visas only last 60 - stoopid i know) and am now not sure if managing to get student visas will make any difference to this (ie they'll be valid for 90days) or whether we will just need to grit our teeth and move the flights! (Damn, wish i were a canadian who doesn't have these problems - i'm from uk)
Any advice much appreciated...
(another thing, can we buy sim cards out there to put in our phones?? will this work ok?)
I don't know about student visas but do remember posts fairly recently so do a search for posts on student visas or maybe someone will post on this subject later. As for normal 'visa' processes if you do decide to change your return flight do not make it 60 days from your initial arrival. Even if you leave the renewal process until day 30(which is not advisable - what if the office closes earlier than usual, or there are too many others also waiting to be processed that day or the official is pissed off at your lack of respect in leaving the process until the last minute etc etc ????) then the renewal period will start on that date and you will still only get 59 days in total. If you go on say day 27 you will only get 56 days in total(with day 1 being your arrival day and day 56 your departure day.
I'm with John on the visa extension aspect. Watch out for the Casa Particular police who seem in many jurisdictions with universities to be on the prowl for student visa violations. Seems they prefer that you have one for ANY kind of a course. Be prepared to answer all questions stating that you are a tourist or,alternately, be prepared to surrender your passport for three working days while you are assisted in receiving a student visa - no charge of course!
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