Berkeley International Office — Local services in Berkeley

They try to appear as they are your friends, but they aren't. Their job is to instruct you which forms to file so that UC Berkeley (mostly) and you stay in the compliance with the government requirements regarding your status. Beyond that, they are extremely unhelpful.

Don't bother asking them questions other than which forms you have to file and where, because they'll just google the answer in front of you and send you the first link. Yes, seriously, that's how their "counseling" went for me until I stopped bothering.

Especially don't ask them any immigration questions, because they'll only put you down. My friend on J1 almost missed his window to file for the EB1 because of the BS they kept telling him. Talk to an immigration attorney instead or google...

0.5 star is good fit for this clumsy office. BIO is horrible. Including director who is a very irresponsible and incompetent person. He always claims only his point and flaunts his working experience only. It is showing the why BIO staffs are not qualified as a member of the international student office of any kind of department. The reason is he could not explain why his rule was true, instead he just flaunts his working experience; we can see the historical example, and some of talentless person goes up to high position and mass up the country or dynasty. The common of people are always loved their power and repressed people by their authorities. It is very similar to Ivor and most of...

The advising staffs are not professional and...