Sharing My F-1 Reentry Experience After Transferring to a Day 1 CPT School
⚠️Everyone’s situation is different. Proceed at your own risk. ⚠️
My national ID card had been expired for about 2 months, so I planned to travel back to my home country to renew it and also spend some time there.
My actual travel period were around 4 weeks.
Before traveling, I had searched online and saw some people say that departure records may not be automatically shared with the school, but entry records definitely are.
About half a month before my trip, I contacted my DSO and advisor in advance and told them I had to go back to my home country because my ID card had expired.
I told my DSO that I would be outside the U.S. for two weeks because, during the semester, leaving the U.S. for more than two weeks may require an early withdrawal of the I-20. Also, if you leave the U.S. for more than two weeks while school is in session, CPT may need to be paused. I didn’t want to make things complicated, so I only said two weeks.
My DSO approved it and told me to prepare employer approval and proof of funds, but I actually didn’t prepare those documents.
I also asked my advisor, who was also my course instructor, for overseas access. He agreed immediately, but in the end, he forgot to give me access. Before I left the U.S., I had already submitted all my assignments in advance.
On the day I left the U.S., there was no exit inspection or anything like that. My outbound route included a domestic layover in the U.S. before my international flight, so I simply walked to the international gate after arriving at the layover airport.
When I reentered the U.S., I arrived at Newark in the afternoon, and there was basically no line.
The officer only asked me one question: “What are you studying?”
I said, “Business Analytics.”
Then he let me in. The whole process took about 3 minutes.
This was also my first time entering and exiting the U.S. after transferring my SEVIS record to Trine. Honestly, there was no special treatment or extra questioning because it is a Day 1 CPT school. To CBP, I was just a master’s student.
But again, I’m only sharing my personal experience. Everyone’s situation is different, and maybe I was just lucky. I don’t recommend using my case as a reference for your own situation.