The International Student Blog

The tax season is right upon us, and for international students navigating the complex US tax system is not an easy task. The first thing to note is that ALL international students who were in the USA during the last year will need to submit and file their taxes – even if you received no income!

So now that we are clear that all students will need to file their taxes and submit at least one form, the next step is to work out what forms need to be completed:

Form 8843 – Must be filed by ALL international students present in United States to exclude the days of presence from the Substantial Presence Test.

Form 1040NR-EZ – Must be filed by all international students who have received any type of U.S income other than interest received from U.S. banks and credit unions.

Social Security and Medicare Taxes - International students nonresident for tax purposes are NOT subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes. If your employer has withheld Social Security and Medicare tax in error, you can apply to get a refund for the taxes withheld in error by filing Form 843 and Form 8316

To help you completing these forms and to work out what forms you need to complete, you can use our online system to enter in your personal details and information. The system will then put all this information into the correct forms for you to print off and send to the IRS. Unfortunately international students are not able to submit and file their taxes online – so you will need to mail them in.

There is a wealth of information about taxes for international students that is available on our website, plus you can also visit the official IRS website which has more detailed information. You can also call the IRS and talk to a representative and ask them questions about your taxes, they can be found at 1-800-829-1040.

If you are an international student who needs more complex tax assistance, then we highly suggest you opt for a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) – two resources who past students have used and recommended to us are:

1. LBF Tax
2. The Tax Guy

Good luck with filing your tax returns!

International Students at Texas A&M University are rallying around to save their “International Week” which they hold each year to celebrate their cultures, traditions and show their identity to all students on campus. This year’s International Week was canceled due to logistical problems with the International Student Association, however despite these problems a group of international students have banded together to put on “International Day”

“International Week is a very important event in which we are able to
show our identity and show it off in a good way,” said Ana Monson,
president of the Guatemalan Student Association. “It is a chance to
teach our fellow Aggies and other international students about our
culture.”

Instead of “International Week”, students will now be celebrating “I-Day” on April 12th where there will be cultural displays, shows and events to celebrate the diversity of international students studying at the university.

“It’s important to the international community that we take the time to
display their hard work and effort over the years,” said Zach Gibson, International Student Association Vice President of Advocacy. “For a lot of the organizations, it is the main event and what they work for all year long. The event is especially for the newer groups that are still growing and recruiting. It’s important to do something together and for the student body. This is a way to grow and to give back to the student body but also to receive and gain new members.”

To learn more about this, and to read the full article, please visit the Battalion online.

Are you an international student at Texas A&M University, then let us know in the comments below how you will be celebrating the new I-Day.

The new visa rules that emerged last month for the UK were unveiled Wednesday (10th February 2010) by the home secretary Alan Johnson. There were large concerns that the new proposed rule changes would impact English language schools, as it would increase the level of english required by applicants to a level that would rule out most students who come to the UK to study English.

The new rules to the “Points Based UK Visa System” was partially in response to a scam where older international female students were applying as a student to also bring in their husbands to the UK as dependents, and as such the changes are as follows:

1. Require overseas students to have higher standards of English (the equivalent of just below GCSE),
2. Halving the amount of time students can work each term-time week to 10 hours
3. Banning dependents of anyone studying for less than six months.

The new changes, however, will not only affect English Language Schools as University Vice-Chancellors are also now concerned about this affect on university funding. At the moment international students are a major source of funding for universities in the UK, and these new changes, along with the suspension of visa applications in India due to a recent large surge at the tail end of last year – could see a large drop in the numbers of international students in the UK.

To read the full original article and for more information about the visa changes, please see the Guardian story.

Are you an international student trying to apply to the UK? Or are you concerned by these new regulations – post your comments below and let us know what you think!

As we highlighted in our previous post, mobile phone companies tend to hit those who travel or study abroad with high roaming costs if you use your mobile phone when abroad. Our post identified some key areas to help students minimize these costs and avoid any high charges or unexpected phone bills.

Of course, the key to using your phone abroad is that its easy and convenient. That is why we have developed a range of sim card options for students coming to study or travel in the USA that are both easy to use, and are extremely cost effective – in fact you will probably not find a cheaper option online anywhere! All you need to do is make sure you have a compatible tri or quadband gsm mobile phone that is unlocked, and you can purchase one of our sims, pop it in your phone and you benefit from:

1. A Local USA Number
2. Cheap Local and Competitive International Rates
3. You Avoid ALL Roaming Charges

We now have two options for those needing a USA sim card – a T-Mobile USA Sim Card and TuYo Mobile USA Sim Card. Both cards offer some fantastic benefits such as low international calls, a set $1 per day unlimited calling price for all calls and much more. Both cards can be ordered online, quickly and easily and there is 2 to 3 day delivery schedule for orders that are shipped to the USA and 4 to 6 days delivery time for anywhere in the world.

For more information about our USA Sim Card options and all our other international sim card options please see our website for more information and pricing:

http://www.internationalstudent.com/sim_cards/

In a move that has been designed to target the international education industry in both the UK and Australia, after both countries have had very public issues with visa issuance/ bogus schools and violence towards international students, the Canadian province of Quebec is now offering all international students who graduate from any university in the province, a fast track to Canadian Citizenship.

The move was announced earlier this week as the province’s premier,  Jean Charest, visited India and met with students and scholars from the University of Mumbai. Starting February 14th, international students who graduate from universities in Quebec would get “a certificate of selection” that would put them on a fast track to Canadian citizenship.

The news is sure to see an influx of applications to Canada, not only from India, but also from countries all over the world. The UK and Australia will be hardest hit however with their recent troubles. Most recently the UK have suspended all visa issuance in India as the last quarter of 2009 saw an huge influx of visa requests (13,500) which is up from the average for that period around 1,200 to 1,800. For more information on this subject, please see the original news source for a full outline.

Are you an international student who is now going to consider studying in Canada because of this? Let us know in the comments section below!

THE SARA’S WISH FOUNDATION

In 1996, Sara Schewe, a student at Georgetown University, was killed, along with 3 other students from her program, while taking a bus in India to see the Taj Mahal. Since that time, Charles and Anne Schewe have dedicated themselves to bringing awareness on how to minimize safety issues while traveling abroad.

Since 1996, there have been a number of advances in the materials and information available from the U.S. government, colleges, universities and study abroad programs, other organizations, as well as support available through insurance and emergency assistance providers. There have also been domestic and international meetings and workshops supporting improved health and safety policies and procedures to support U.S. college and university students.

Sara’s Wish Foundation has collaborated with some of these organizations to develop the video “Know Before You Go”, and to put together the information you will find on their website. The information and links are intended to help inform students, parents, and friends who may go abroad or support others who do, that knowing more about good study abroad program practices and health and safety challenges in countries around the world can help students have a healthy and safe time abroad.

Foreign travel and study abroad remains an invaluable learning experience, broadening a student’s world view and enhancing the college experience. While there have been advancements in the field since this incident to ensure student safety, precautions must still be taken, students and families need to research about benefits and risks associated with a particular location and/or program, and understand that the quality of support does vary from institution to institution and from program to program. It is Sara’s Wish Foundation’s hope that together we can avoid tragedies and difficulties as students begin that wondrous adventure to broaden their lives.

For more information, please visit the Sara’s Wish Foundation website where you will find further, excellent information and advice.

We all love our mobile phones, they provide such a high level of convenience that most people do not want to go without them. However, although you may travel well, its most likely that your existing mobile phone provider and contract in your home country will not travel well with you. As any traveler will tell you, when you use your mobile phone abroad you will be hit with high roaming charges that can really start to add up if you use your phone for any length of time.

To avoid any surprises in your phone bill, there are a few things you can do to minimize your costs and make sure you have the best calling options available to you. Before you travel abroad, you should:

1. Call Current Provider – before you leave, you should call your current phone provider and find out firstly if you can use your phone abroad, secondly find out what the charges will be (so there will be no surprises if you do end up using your phone) and thirdly ask if your phone is locked or unlocked, and if the latter you should request your phone unlock code. If they do not provide this to you, there are many sources online to unlock your phone – Google Search is a good start!
2. Do Some Research – after calling your provider, you will most likely find out that your charges when abroad are going to be high. The best way to avoid this is to purchase a sim card for the country you are traveling to, this way you will have a local number, cheap calls locally and depending on the country you are traveling to, you may have free inbound calls.
3. International Calls – of course, if you are traveling, you will want to be calling home and people around the world. The best and cheapest way to do this is through a VOIP solution such as Skype and Gizmo which you can run for free on your laptop, and will offer low cost rates per minute to countries around the world. If you do not have access to a laptop, consider purchasing an international calling card, or a sim card with international calling services built in. It may be slightly more expensive, but will be very easy as you can call directly from your mobile phone. Please also be aware that when using a calling card from a prepaid phone, you will be using up your prepaid credit and your international calling credit.

Hopefully with these few simple steps, you will be able to avoid the high roaming charges that most providers will impose on you when you travel abroad. If you need a range of sim cards, we have a range available that can be purchased online quickly and easily. For example our T-Mobile USA Sim Card offers some excellent benefits and can be delivered anywhere in the world!

We have just added two new schools to our online university video profiles page for schools in the UK. If you are looking to study in the UK, our video profiles are a great way to learn more about schools in the UK. The new schools added include the University of Westminster and Swansea University – and you can see the new profiles below:

If you would like to add your schools video to our site – please contact us.