regarding change of status to f1 to my friend, i went to international offic in my university. The international office suggested me that they would have no problem to accept the student but student himself should file to change his status after 60 days of his arrival into the US (not before 60 days) and if get approval, university will allow him to enroll into class. The advisor told me that the student should prove his intent to change the status. She also told me that the even if USCIS approve the change of status, visitors who got their status changed over here had hard time to get visa once they went back to thier country. Now two issues are here: whether your friend can prove that his intent to change his status is geniune or not. And whether your friend want to return to nepal and get back to US again. I heard that USCIS has approved the change of status of students who joined for PhD. My suggestion go back and apply for F1 if he is a geniune student. It only costs his airfare and he also can save the training quota for his colleagues for futuere. We all know that Nepalese people need visa even for transit in HK. However, it is his personal decisions.