This client came to our law firm around May 2018 to change to F-1 student status before the end of the J-1 program. If you were maintaining your legal status at the time of filing the F-1 status change application, the immigration office has approved the status change even if the period of stay of the existing status expires during the examination. However, from late 2017, the Immigration Service’s F-1 status change rejection rate started to increase exponentially. The reason for the Immigration Department was that if the applicant’s nonimmigrant visa status was not maintained until 30 days before the start date of study on the I-20, the F-1 status change was not possible under the regulations. The National Bar Association sent several official complaints to the Immigration Service, which suddenly came up with a new interpretation of the same existing regulations and forcedly dismissed the F-1 status change cases, but the Immigration Service revised the existing guidelines and made the F- 1 Applicants who cannot maintain their status until the start of their studies are obliged to apply for a “Bridge Application” such as a B1/B2 visa. However, since these new guidelines were secretly announced without even a public opinion period, few people were aware of it, not only the general public, but also experts. Our immigration team at Dongho Song General Law Firm was aware of reports of similar cases, and this client’s F-1 status change was carried out at the same time as the B-2 status change case and was successfully approved. Congratulations!