The visa comes after the acceptance, not before

Studying in the USA runs on a sequence most applicants get backwards: you cannot apply for a US student visa on your own, and the process runs the other way. A school certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has to accept you first, enter your details into the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), and issue you a Form I-20. Only once you hold that I-20 can you pay the required fee and apply for the visa itself.

Which visa you need depends on what you are attending. A university, college, high school, seminary, conservatory, or academic language program requires an F visa. A vocational or other recognized nonacademic program, apart from language training, requires an M visa. You cannot study for credit on a visitor visa, and you cannot enter on the Visa Waiver Program and switch into a course of study once you arrive.

What SEVIS actually costs, separate from the visa

Before your visa application, you pay the I-901 SEVIS fee. As of the current fee table published by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the SEVIS fee for F or M visa applicants is a full $350 payment. The fee for most J-visa exchange visitors is $220 in full, with a subsidized $35 rate for specific J-visa categories and no fee for government visitors on either visa type. This fee is separate from the visa application fee and from any administration fee your school charges, and it funds SEVP and SEVIS directly, not your school.

You pay it through fmjfee.com, by credit card, check, money order, or Western Union, and you should print the payment confirmation to bring to your visa interview and to keep for when you enter the country. Failing to pay within 30 days of being flagged can lead to your SEVIS record being terminated and a fraud flag on your file, so treat this as a hard deadline, not a formality.

The DS-160 and the interview

Once you have your I-20 and have paid the SEVIS fee, you complete Form DS-160, the Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application, through the State Department’s Consular Electronic Application Center. You pay a non-refundable visa application fee of $185 and schedule an interview at the US embassy or consulate in the country where you live. Wait times for interview appointments vary by location and season, which is the practical reason to start this process early rather than close to your intended start date.

At the interview, a consular officer decides whether you qualify for the visa. Expect to be asked to show academic preparation (transcripts, degrees, required standardized test scores), evidence of your intent to leave the US after your studies, and proof of how you will cover tuition, living costs, and travel. New-student visas can be issued up to 365 days before your program starts, but you are not allowed into the country more than 30 days before that start date, so booking travel too early can backfire even with an approved visa.

Why “fully funded” is the wrong frame for most US study

Unlike some national scholarship systems built around a handful of large government-funded awards, US funding is spread across thousands of individual institutions, each setting its own aid policy. The State Department’s own guidance for prospective graduate students is blunt about the limits of this: most scholarship awards may cover only part of total educational and living costs, and are frequently unavailable to first-year international students. The bulk of graduate funding comes through assistantships (teaching, research, or administrative) rather than need-based scholarships, and these are awarded department by department, not through a national portal.

One genuine national route exists: the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, which funds graduate students, young professionals, and artists to study or research in the US for six months to a year or longer. You do not apply to the US government directly. Application details and grant terms vary by country of citizenship and program, and you apply through the Fulbright Commission or US Embassy in your home country. Because terms differ by country, check your own country’s Fulbright page before assuming a specific benefit applies to you.

If your plan depends on covering the gap with loans, a sponsor, or a graduate assistantship rather than a named scholarship, that is normal for US study, not a sign your application is weak.

Work rules while you are there

On-campus employment is available automatically to F-1 students without a separate work permit, but it is capped at 20 hours per week while school is in session, with full-time work allowed during official school breaks. The job has to be on campus or at a location educationally affiliated with your school, such as a contracted campus bookstore, and it cannot displace a US worker.

Curricular Practical Training (CPT) is training tied directly to your curriculum, arranged through your school before you finish your degree. If you use a year or more of full-time CPT, you lose eligibility for Optional Practical Training (OPT) at that same degree level, which is a real trade-off worth discussing with your school’s international office before accepting a long full-time placement.

OPT itself allows up to 12 months of work authorization tied to your field of study, available before or after you finish your program depending on how you use it, and you become eligible for another 12 months if you move up to a higher degree level. Post-completion OPT applications have to be filed within a window from 90 days before your program ends to 60 days after, and all the training has to be completed within 14 months of finishing your studies. Students in eligible STEM fields on the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List can apply for a further 24-month STEM OPT extension, but only once per qualifying degree, and only while working for an employer enrolled in E-Verify. Across regular OPT you can accrue up to 90 days of unemployment before losing status; on STEM OPT that cumulative limit rises to 150 days across both periods.

The 60-day rule after you finish

When your program, or an OPT period, ends, you generally have 60 days to leave the country, transfer to a new program, or change status, unless you are moving directly into further study at the same school. This grace period is not extra time to keep working; on-campus work, for instance, is not permitted during it. If your plans involve switching to work authorization such as an H-1B, or extending your studies, start that paperwork well before this window opens rather than during it.

What to check before you rely on any of this

Visa processing times, interview availability, and specific embassy requirements vary by country and change without much notice, so confirm current wait times with the embassy or consulate where you will actually apply. Individual university aid policies vary far more than this overview can capture. Always confirm the fee amounts above against ICE’s current published fee table before you budget, since federal fee schedules are revised periodically.

For a sense of how differently another country structures the same visa-plus-funding problem, see how the UK combines visa fees, proof of funds, and its Graduate Route. If you are weighing loans or assistantships against scholarships generally, Funding Routes That Are Not Scholarships covers that ground directly. And once you actually have a US visa and funding lined up, After You Win covers the paperwork that still stands between an award letter and a plane ticket.