international student out of status

I came to the US in 1994 to get my undergrad degree, but i was not doin well. I failed couple courses and i was out of status right away. Then i moved to 2 other schools with the same bad grades, for 2,5 years. In May 2002, i finally finished my undergraduate study (at the 4th school). Now im an MBA student at the same school.

My intl student advisor didnt send the 1st page of the I-20 t INS, so I guess, im definetely out of status.

My question is.. can i use a lawyer to get my I-20 reinstated ? All i need is another 3 more semesters and i will go home. I just dont want to be here illegaly.

Please help.
Thanks a bunch guys!

I came to the US in 1994 to get my undergrad degree, but i was not doin well. I failed couple courses and i was out of status right away. Then i moved to 2 other schools with the same bad grades, for 2,5 years. In May 2002, i finally finished my undergraduate study (at the 4th school). Now im an MBA student at the same school.

My intl student advisor didnt send the 1st page of the I-20 t INS, so I guess, im definetely out of status.

My question is.. can i use a lawyer to get my I-20 reinstated ? All i need is another 3 more semesters and i will go home. I just dont want to be here illegaly.

Please help.
Thanks a bunch guys!

Something just doesn't make sense here... if you failed a couple of courses and fell "out of status right away", that means ever since then you have been out of status. I'm not sure what the stipulations are concerning I-20s and grades, but generally if you're on a student visa, you're basically on that visa for the duration stated. If you've transferred to other schools, you should have updated i-20/F1 visa of whatever schools during your attendance.

You are doing a lot of guessing for which you can answer yourself by finding if you are out of status or not. No one here can really assist you since we don't know what your status is. Go to your int'l student advisor and find out whats going on. They can help you.

Thanks for the reply, Ren.

As far as im concern, Visa is the permit to enter the US and I-20 is the permit to stay in the US. Once I transfer to another school, the intl advisor has to sent the old I-20 and the 1st page of the new I-20, to the INS, to have it stamped. In this case, my intl advisor didnt do so. She typed me a new I-20, BUT she didnt send the first page of the new I-20 to INS.

I know im out of status, but i need to stay for another 2 semesters to get my master's degree.
Do you think a lawyer can help with my status?
My intl student advisor doesnt know much about this matter, she even gave me the forms and told me to read it myself.

if your school accpets you without a visa, you can stay but having a visa is generally better