Texas A&M University Graduate Catalog

• Academic Calendar
• Board of Regents
  & System Adminstrative
  Officers
• TAMU Administrative
  Officers
• Office of
  Graduate Studies
• General Information
• Degree Information
• Admission
• Registration & Academic Status
• Tuition, Fees &
  Other Financial Information
• Housing
• Orientation
• Resources for Students
• Texas A&M University at Galveston
• Course Descriptions
• School of
  Rural Public Health
• Faculty
• Appendices

Registration and Academic Status

Course Load Requirements for International
(Non-Immigrant) Students

Unless he/she has prior authorization through a Department of Homeland Security or Department of State process that is documented in the International Student Services office, an international student must be in “full time status” as defined earlier in this section. Without prior written approval to drop below full time enrollment, the student is considered to be out of legal immigration status. Loss of legal immigration status is very serious and will result in a student being ineligible to be employed and may result in a student having to leave the United States. It is the responsibility of the student to uphold U.S federal government and University regulations related to this. Note that the U.S government allows a student to register less than full time in certain circumstances. These reasons may be found in the “Full Course Waiver” form available on the International Student Services website. Also, in certain situations, the Registrar may be able to authorize that a student has full-time enrollment status, even though the student is enrolled for fewer than the normally required number of hours. Although this is the case, the student must still have a valid Full Course Waiver approved through International Student Services (ISS) to maintain legal immigration status prior to the end of the add/drop period at the start of each semester.

Although summer time is traditionally a vacation period, an international student who begins or ends his/her academic program during a summer semester is required to be in full-time status unless he/she has an approved Full Course Waiver form as described above.

A student who registers for courses in the English Language Institute may count those courses toward U.S. immigration requirements for full time status; however, such courses may not/are not able to be counted toward the University policy for full time status. The student should verify the university requirement with the Office of Graduate Studies.