Graduate Student Information

Thank you for contacting our office, and congratulations on your graduate school admission! Every scholarship student who plans to study at a university under the jurisdiction of the Kuwait Cultural Office in Los Angeles, will need to get their admission authenticated by our office. We will authenticate your admission and send it to your respective scholarship sponsor. Please note that this is often a required first step in getting your scholarship approved by your sponsor in Kuwait and before you can finalize your registration with our office. Please make sure that you have gained admission to an approved Master’s or Doctoral degree program at an approved university. The list of approved programs and universities can be found Here

Once you have your unconditional admission letter, please send the following items to the Director of the Graduate Department:

• Copy of Passport
• Copy of Civil ID
• Copy of I-20, if available
• Admission Letter
• Unofficial copies of your past degrees
  
  
  • High School and Bachelor’s Transcripts (for Master’s students)
  • High School, Bachelor’s and Master’s Transcripts (for PhD students)
• Master’s Equivalency Letter, if applicable and if you are registering as a Doctoral student
• Bachelor’s Equivalency Letter, if applicable
• High School Equivalency Letter, if applicable

Once we have received ALL of the above documents, we will be able to authenticate your admission and send it to your scholarship sponsor in Kuwait.

Thank you for contacting our office and welcome to the United States! Assuming that you have already sent in all the items {add hyperlink to the Admission Authentication list?} needed to get your admission authenticated by our office, there are just a few more items we will need for you to send to the Director of the Graduate Department to ensure that your registration with the Cultural Office is complete. The following remaining items are required to complete the registration process:

• Completed Registration Checklist Form
• Copy of F-1 Visa
• Copy of I-20, if not submitted yet
• Retrieve I-94
• Copy of Direct Deposit Form (which you will need to get directly from your bank in the U.S.)
• Letter from your university confirming that your program is a full time, day time program that does not require any online courses for degree completion. This letter should be on university letterhead, and preferably from your academic department.
• Dependent Documents: If you will have a spouse and/or children accompanying you to the United States while you pursue your studies, please send us their documents as well so that we may register them as your dependents with the office. We will need the following:
  
  
  • Passport (for each family member)
  • F-2 Visa (for each family member)
  • I-20 (for each family member)
  • I-94 (for each family member)
  • Marriage Certificate
  • Birth Certificate (for each child)
  • Civil ID (for each family member)

Once we receive all of the above materials as well as your official scholarship decree from your sponsor in Kuwait, we will be able to register you with the office. We look forward to working with you and having you join the Graduate Department!

Now that we have authenticated your admission, you have sent in all of your remaining materials, we have received your scholarship decree directly from your sponsor in Kuwait, and you are fully registered with the office, we would like to remind you of the following:

We will activate your health insurance effective the date of your arrival.

Please complete and return the Release of Information Authorization Form to your advisor.

It is also important to note the following basic Sponsored Student requirements:

• Waive out of the university health insurance plan. You are already covered by Cigna through the Kuwait Embassy. Please make sure to check the university deadlines to waive out of this, to avoid any unwanted charges on your account. Please fill out the waiver at your university’s health office and let them know that you already have your own health insurance through the Kuwait Cultural Office. If you do not do this, you will have to pay for the school’s health insurance with your own money. Please contact the Kuwait Embassy Health Office if you need assistance with this.
• Send in your Verification of Enrollment: At the beginning of every term, we need to see you're enrolled in classes in order to keep your health insurance activated.
• Send in your official transcripts: At the end of every term, please have your school mail us your transcripts either via regular mail or via email, as we are required to update the Ministry with your academic progress.
• Send in your Verification of Non-Traditional Courses Form: This form needs to be completed at the end of every academic year by a university official and sent back directly from the university to your academic advisor.
• No online coursework: Graduate students are not permitted to take any online courses. If you would like our office to authenticate your transcripts upon completion of the degree you will need to provide a verification of non-traditional courses form. Please note we can only authenticate your degree if no online courses were taken.

For the most updated Sponsor Rules and Regulations, including the financial allowances you are entitled to depending on your sponsor and type of scholarship, please refer to the Bylaws of each sponsor on our website Sponsors.

• Salaries are released about 10 days before the start of each month (Ex: December salary will be released around November 20th). Please check your bank account before contacting us about your salary. Your monthly salary may be on hold (meaning you do not get paid) if you do not submit the required documents (VOE, Transcripts, etc.) to your advisor every term.
• Ticket Allowances: You may be entitled to an annual ticket if you have been a full time student for the academic year. Please contact your advisor to see if you are eligible for a ticket.

Every scholarship student has a scholarship start and end date. If you think you will be unable to complete your degree requirements and graduate by your scholarship end date, please be in touch with your advisor so that our office can request either an extension or suspension of scholarship, if you qualify, from your sponsor in a timely manner.

If you have any questions about your scholarship rules, your financial entitlements or anything else related to your scholarship, please contact your advisor.

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation! This is such exciting news and quite the accomplishment. We feel extremely privileged to have been a part of your academic journey. Now that you are close to completing your degree requirements, our office will need to issue the graduation report to your sponsor and will need to authenticate your transcripts.

Please contact your advisor about your graduation entitlements.

Also, please ensure that once your degree has been conferred and it has posted to your transcripts, you have the following sent to your advisor directly by the university:

• Two official sealed transcripts (or electronic transcripts) from all institutions attended which counted towards your degree program. Must be mailed or emailed directly from the school to your advisor.
• Verification of Non-Traditional Courses Form: This form will need to be completed by the Registrar’s Office or Student Records Office and sent directly to your advisor.

Finally, please bring a copy of your bound thesis to the Kuwait National Library upon your return to Kuwait. This is required of all Master’s and Ph.D. students per Ministry decree {38/2016}.