Immigrated to the United States to attend American high schools.

Many parents of young international students will try to live in local American families. Or should I stay with my children directly or let them stay with relatives in the United States? Today, we will talk about this topic on the American high school information network.

Can parents of American high school students stay with them for a long time?

If your children are very young, such as children in primary schools in China. Then it is necessary to let your parents come over. With permission, we will also suggest that you accompany them in a legal capacity if conditions permit.

However, if we study in the third grade of junior high school or even the first and second grades of senior high school in China, and study in the ninth to twelfth grades of senior high school in the United States, the necessity of parental companionship is open to question.

Parental companionship

In what capacity should parents stay with them for a long time? Is this difficulty or their own choice sustainable and operable?

Parents should first confirm whether long-term residence is legal. In the United States, if you want to legally stay for a long time and travel between China and the United States, you only need to have the following identities:

1, American long-term residence status/green card, or immigration.

2. Parents are just exchange scholars. Or some parents say that since my children come to the United States to study, it is also possible for me to come here for further study, learn a language or even get a master's degree.

3. Parents have American work visas.

All the above three are the most ideal legal status for accompanying students. But we often see that many parents go with students with b 1 and b2 business travel visas. Although the tourist visa has been issued for ten years, when you come to the United States after landing, the real time you can stay is actually six months.

Due to the increasingly strict national security regulations in the United States, many customs offices find that you often travel between China and the United States with b 1 and b2 visas. For example, you may stay for six months at a time, so when you come back next time, you will stay for another six months. At this time, the customs will question that you use a tourist visa every time you enter the customs and stay for a long time.

After the audit rules are stricter, they will doubt your motives and you may be refused entry. This also happens to many mothers who study abroad.

Basic skills of American life

Does it mean that you can sit back and relax with legal resident status? Actually, parents, do you have the skills to live in America? How much do you know about American society? How to deal with urgent problems?

First of all, do you want to rent or buy a house in America? Parents who apply for a green card or invest in immigration may buy a house directly, which is often seen among our students, but rarely.

So for most parents who don't apply for a green card or invest in immigration, the first level is renting a house, which is easy to encounter problems.

Non-Americans should have a lot of materials to prove their ability to pay the rent when renting a house. Even at the beginning of renting a house, you have to pay a lot of deposits and even agency fees.

language barrier

Not every parent has a good English ability to cope with these exchanges in American life and daily life. For example, renting a house and signing various rental contracts.

To give a simple example, in order to pay the water and electricity bills, children will be cut off from water and electricity if they can't pay them. In order to pay this utility bill, I have to ask the teacher for leave to pay this utility bill. Otherwise, my grandmother can't pay the water and electricity bills because of the language barrier. Therefore, children should take turns to take care of their families and the elderly, which are all interfering factors that affect children's learning.

In addition, what should I do if I drive out to send my children to school in the United States in an emergency (such as a flat tire)? American schools invite parents to attend parent-teacher conferences from time to time, and teachers need to talk to parents about their students. Are you ready to communicate effectively with the teachers at school? Facing schoolwork problems with children, is there any way to communicate clearly with school teachers?

In fact, in addition to these things mentioned above, there will be many trivial or urgent events in the United States. If you are not familiar with American society and related systems, you will really feel the uncontrollable despair of a person in a foreign country.

Boarding relatives and friends

There may be parents, so can I let my relatives and friends in America take care of them? The benefits of giving it to relatives and friends are:

1, you don't need to worry about the children's housing problem at all. After the child came over, he felt more secure because he was a familiar person. Not only for children, but also for parents, it feels like giving acquaintances, and my heart is more practical. This is the good part.

2. Children have no difficulty in initial adaptation. The biggest advantage is no loss: at least one meal a day can be Chinese food, which can relieve hunger and comfort homesickness.

3, don't worry about trivial things in life, run a mobile phone, open a bank account and so on.

Of course, staying with relatives also matters. Some students can destroy relationships even if they live in relatives' homes.

One case that our American High School Information Network once served was the children who came to study in the United States from a big city in the inland of China. After coming to America, she lived in her grandmother's house, but she didn't get along with her aunt, uncle and cousin. She only lived in her grandmother's house for a year, and everyone was unhappy.

Later, because the family relationship was too stiff, the children's interest in studying in the United States was gone. Finally, she chose to give up, ended her life in the United States and returned to the mainland. Friendship and affection are affected.

Last but not least, the important reason why we don't recommend parents to accompany us to school or lodge their children with relatives is that these two situations are not conducive to children's good integration into American society, making local friends in the United States, developing their own social circle and truly understanding American culture, so as to prepare for their future career and development in the United States.

After all, native Americans are the "mainstream" of American society, and living in "native American families often open a window for small international students." Eat, live, learn English and experience American life. For children, every day's experience is fresh, and there are challenges of independent life. It is also helpful to improve English listening and speaking ability by exercising emotional intelligence in getting along with others, because every family member can become her teacher to some extent.

Presumably, no parents want to let their children move from their home in China to another "China home" with different geographical location after paying so much money and energy.