The Immigration and Nationality Act provides two non-immigrant visa categories for persons wishing to study in the United States. The F visa is for academic studies, and the M visa is for non-academic or vocational studies. (Note: Some exchange programs also involve study. Please see Exchange Visitors and Au Pairs.)

Academic requirements: The student visa applicant must have successfully completed a course of study normally required for enrollment. The student, unless coming to participate exclusively in an English language training program, must either be sufficiently proficient in English to pursue the intended course of study, or the school must have made special arrangements for English language courses or teach the course in the student's native language.

Financial resources: Applicants must prove that sufficient funds are or will be available from an identified and reliable financial source to defray all living and school expenses during the entire period of anticipated study in the United States. Specifically, F-1 applicants must prove they have sufficient readily-available funds to meet all expenses for the first year of study, and that adequate funds will be available for each subsequent year of study. M-1 student visa applicants must have evidence that sufficient funds are immediately available to pay all tuition and living costs for the entire period of intended stay.

Acceptance forms: An applicant coming to the U.S. to study must be accepted for a full course of study by an educational institution approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The academic institution must send the applicant Form I-20 A-B, Certificate of Eligibility for Non-immigrant (F-1) Student Status for Academic and Language Students. The nonacademic or vocational institution must send the student Form I-20 M-N, Certificate of Eligibility for Non-immigrant (M-1) Student Status for Vocational Students. Both of these forms should include a SEVIS ID number in the upper right hand corner. Educational institutions obtain forms I-20 A-B and I-20 M-N from the USCIS after being approved by the USCIS to accept foreign students. Foreign students cannot legally study at schools that do not issue Form I-20.

Student visa applicants must establish to the satisfaction of the Consular Officer that they have binding ties to a residence in a foreign country which they have no intention of abandoning, and that they will depart the U.S. when they have completed their studies. It is impossible to specify the exact form the evidence should take since applicants' circumstances vary greatly.