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Will my immigration status qualify me for in-state college tuition?

For many of my clients, allowing their children to go to school in the United States—often at the university level—is a big priority, and one of their primary goals in pursuing immigration benefits.

One of the most common questions I’m asked concerns college tuition—specifically, the difference between resident and non-resident tuition. First, a little background:

In America’s university system, “state residents” pay significantly lower tuition than “non-residents.” The difference between resident and non-resident tuition can be considerable. For example, at any University of California, undergraduate students who are non-residents pay an additional $10,000 per semester. Over the course of four years, that’s $80,000! A legal resident of the state of California would have saved this sum.

So, how does one qualify as a state resident?

Two conditions must be met. First, for a dependent student, the student must have a parent who has lived in the state for at least one year before the student begins school. Second, the student’s immigration status must qualify him or her for state residency.

      In other words, certain visas will allow a student to become a state resident, others won’t. Knowing this, my clients often ask me, “Will my family qualify for resident tuition with the visa we have?

The table below will answer this question for most people. If you hold one of the following visas, you will not qualify for resident status and will be required to pay higher, nonresident tuition:

B-1, B-2	Visitors for business or pleasure
C	Aliens in transit
D-1, D-2	Alien crew member
F-1, F-2	Academic students and their spouse and children
H-2, H-3	Temporary workers' and trainees' spouse and children
J-1, J-2	Exchange visitors and their spouse and children
M-1, M-2	Nonacademic or vocational students and their spouse and children
O-2	Alien accompanying and assisting an O-1; spouse and children of an O-1 or O-2
P-1, P-2, P-3, P-4	Internationally recognized athlete, artist or entertainer and spouses and children
Q	International cultural exchange program
S	Alien supplying critical information relating to organized crime
TN/TD	Trade NAFTA visa holders
TROV	Transit without visa

You might have noticed that the EB-5 visa isn’t among them.

EB-5 visa holders—I’m happy to inform my clients—can qualify as state residents, and here’s why: the EB-5 visa isn’t really a visa, technically speaking.

A visa temporarily gives a person the legal right to live in the United States, often on the condition that the visa holder does a certain job, attends certain school, manages a particular business, or any number of other conditions. The different types of visas—and there are a lot of them—correspond to the different justifications for the person staying in the U.S. If you hold an F visa, for example, you can stay in the United States so long as you are a full-time student at a given college.

The EB-5 program, on the other hand, gives investors and their families Green Cards, making them legal residents of the United States. In most cases, Green Card holders, after a certain time, can become full, naturalized American Citizens.

That’s why, for many of my clients, the EB-5 program is the most advantageous path to U.S. immigration. Although it requires a significant investment up front, it allows families to save a great deal of money on college tuition, gives them a chance to enjoy a substantial return on their investment.

The following are links to pages from the website of the University of California at Berkeley, which provide more information about state residency, immigration status and tuition.

http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html

http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/non-citizen.html