Every foreign Country/University/College has their intakes during a year. Some have two intakes while others may have three or only one or a rolling intake during the academic year. Majority Institutions in a particular country follow the same intake. Hence, you should initiate steps for admission process at least one year in advance for the respective intake. In some cases, you could begin these steps 3-4 months in advance as well.

Visa Waiver Program travelers who have not obtained approval through ESTA should expect to be denied boarding on any air carrier bound for the United States. If you are allowed to board, you can expect to encounter significant delays and possible denial of admission at the U.S. port of entry (i.e., arrival airport). ESTA registration usually only takes a few minutes to complete, authorization often arrives in seconds, and it is valid for two years, unless the traveler’s passport expires within that two-year period. In those cases, ESTA validity is limited to the passport’s validity.

No. If your visa is still valid you can travel to the United States with your two passports (old and new), as long as the visa is valid, not damaged, and is the appropriate type of visa required for your principal purpose of travel. (Example: tourist visa, when your principal purpose of travel is tourism). Both passports should be from the same country and of the same type (Example: both Vietnamese regular passports). Also, the name and other personal data should be the same in both passports. Please do not try to remove the visa from the old passport and stick it into the new valid passport. If you do so, the visa will no longer be valid.