New Students

Welcome to Hopkins! All international students admitted to eligible degree programs within the Johns Hopkins University schools will be issued an I-20 Certificate of Eligibility for F-1 student status. In some cases, students may be eligible for J-1 student status. To understand the difference between F-1 and J-1 visa types, click here. 

How to Get Your Visa Document (I-20/DS-2019) from OIS:

1. Accept your offer of admission to a JHU degree program and pay any required fees.
2. Receive an email from the Office of International Services (OIS) with instructions on how to request your visa document.
   OIS typically emails students within 5 days of completing step 1 above.
   
   Students in Advanced Academic Programs will receive an email from OIS after their program initiates the visa sponsorship process on their behalf.
    
3. Complete the New International Student Form via iHopkins, the OIS database system (see below for a list of documents you’ll need).
4. An OIS advisor will review your request and issue your document.
   We aim to process requests within 10 business days of receiving the request, but it may take longer during peak times.
5. You will receive an email confirming that your document has been issued and explaining the next steps you need to take.

Preparing Your Documentation

In order to complete the New International Student Form in iHopkins, you will need the following documents:

1. Passport – Your passport (and any dependent’s passports) should be valid at least six months into the future.  You will need to scan the biographical page(s) of your passport and those of your dependents for upload to iHopkins.

2. Financial Documentation – that meets or exceeds the Estimated Student Expenses for the first year of your degree program (see below).  For J-1 status, funding is required for the entire degree program.

Your financial documents must:

• be in English, or a translation into English must be provided. If an unofficial translation is provided, please attach the Certification by Translator Form.
• be current, issued within the past 3 months.
• be accompanied by an affidavit of support if the bank account is not in your name.  The affidavit must come from the person who owns the bank account. 
• be liquid assets, available for immediate withdrawal, if it shows personal or family funds.  Property, tax documents, income statements and personal credit cards/lines of credit are unacceptable.  

Examples of acceptable sources of funding:

• Funding from Johns Hopkins
• Personal funds
• Family funds
• Student loan
  • Student loan approval letters must show that the loan is fully underwritten and prepared for disbursement.  Conditional approval letters are not acceptable unless the condition is directly related to obtaining an I-20 or DS-2019 student visa document.
• Funds from your home government
• Other institutional funds such as the student’s current employer, scholarship awarding agencies, etc.
• Any combination of the above

Examples of acceptable funding documents:

• Bank statement showing account balance
• Letter from a bank confirming the account balance OR that there are sufficient funds in the account to meet the estimated costs
• Letter on sponsor letterhead (for government funding or other scholarships) stating amount of funding that will be provided
• Letter on JHU letterhead (for funding you will receive from JHU)
• See additional examples of funding documents here

3. Current Immigration Documentation – If you are currently in the U.S. in F-1 or J-1 status, provide a copy of your current I-20 or DS-2019 and a copy of your current F-1/J-1 visa stamp, if applicable.

• To transfer your F-1 record to JHU, please review the additional information about transferring your F-1 record to JHU on our Transfer-In page.
• To transfer your J-1 record to JHU, OIS needs to receive a fully completed Transfer-In Form. This document will be provided to you after you submit the New International Student eForm and an OIS advisor reviews it. 
• If you are currently in the U.S. in another visa status and would like to understand your options for obtaining F-1 student status, click here.

4. Dependent Information – if you will have dependents (spouse or children) accompanying you, you will complete the Dependent Request eForm which will ask for a copy of the biographical page(s) of your dependent(s) passport.  You may also be required to show additional funding.

Estimated International Student Expenses

This information is updated each year in the fall for I-20/DS-2019 issuance only. Amounts listed below may vary from other program estimates.

• The tuition figures below are an estimate used for I-20/DS-2019 issuance purposes. Students should refer to their JHU school for the current tuition amounts they can expect to pay when they attend JHU
• Estimated living expenses are based on the number of months in the academic calendar for each specific academic program and include health insurance costs (for example, nine-month academic year programs vs. 11- or 12-month intensive programs, etc.). Actual expenses for each student will vary
• For dependent spouses and children add $7,200 per dependent to your total expenses

Select the school you will be attending to see the costs required for I-20/DS-2019 issuance.