An international student experience with the international student office at UCSD.

I know that it is near mid-July already so I will write this for international students who already decided to go to UCSD.

Straight up, this school is on an extreme budget crunch, probably due to the massive expansion projects that you will see all over the campus. Furthermore, I think that the pandemic contributes further to this financial deterioration. This is critical, because the international student service here in UCSD is quite understaffed and probably under budget as well. Thus, it takes a lot more time for stuff to get processed here when compared to other schools. From my personal experience, getting a new I-20 takes about two weeks, getting an enrollment confirmation also takes about the same time. In addition, when requesting a new -20 to apply for OPT, the school charges $100, which is HIGHLY unusual as other institutions would do it for free, since it is just a matter of printing a new copy of your I-20. Therefore, as soon as you need a new document or a file, request it immediately through the international office's website, and check up with them CONSTANTLY, because they are understaffed and sometime your requests are simply glossed over. I believe that the faculties and staff are doing their best, especially during this pandemic, but the school is simply overstretched and underfunded, and these conditions will be apparent as you enrolled, so be aware and be proactive if you need any assistance.

PS: The most apparent evidence of the sub-par level of UCSD's international office is the location of the office itself, in which it is pretty much hidden within Revelle college in a very small building, and is crammed in a small sub-terrain floor of that already small building as well. From my experience coming into the office, most of the employees there are student workers, so they tend to not have the technical knowledge regarding immigration or international visitors laws, so it is best if you just send an email directly to ISPO if you have any technical question, and save the trouble of finding the very well-hidden office.