Long long time.

You have good sense of humor. This will help a lot when you are waiting for your F1 approval. It is unpredicatable long time to wait for the result to come back, that's why it's like forever. To be eleigible for OPT you need to be on F1 for at least 8 months. So, you can study for the first one or two quarters in 2004, and send in your petition during summer. To maintain full time status, it is not require to take classes in the summer. Again, check with your ISO abour the average time required to transfer. And forever means you may expect 3 months will do it, but it could end up with 6 months or even longer. Anyway, it won't hurt to talk to the international advisor of your ISO for more info.