International students may wish to attend a full-time Graduate Program at Governors State University. In order to do so, English proficiency must demonstrated through completion of the ESL Program or through submission of IELTS, PTE, or TOEFL scores. Please contact ois@govst.edu for more information about the English proficiency minimum score requirements.

Once you have applied to the English Language Learning Center, you can begin the process of obtaining your student visa.

To obtain your visa, you must first submit the following items to our office: 

• A copy of the first page of your government issued passport 
• A copy of a bank statement that indicates the equivalent of $27,500USD (This is one year tuition and living expenses that we need to see to issue I-20 document for F-1 student visa). This bank statement must not be dated later than 6 months from the time of the application.   
• If the bank statement is in another person’s name, such as a parent’s name, then you must also submit an Affidavit of Support.  

The documents can be emailed to esl@govst.edu.

Once these items are sent to our office, we will create an I-20 for you to use to obtain your student visa. You can find more information and instructions about the student visa process here at our Office of International Services website.

Some students may already have a student visa, and would like to transfer their SEVIS information over to Governors State University. For more information about transferring your SEVIS, please see this page on our Office of International Services website.

We provide airport pick up service for students who will live in Governors State University's Residence Hall. If you are in need of transportation from the airport to our school upon your arrival, please notify the English Language Learning Center, esl@govst.edu, and we will arrange a pick-up for you.

If you are in need of housing during your attendance to our program, we offer living arrangements through our University Housing page.