New US Visa Rule, How It Will Impact Indian Students – Free PDF Download

What is the issue?

• The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department has issued new rules for foreign
• students studying in the country.
• Accordingly, students might have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities moved classes entirely online in the upcoming fall semester.
• Students attending schools offering“normal in-person classes” can stay,
• But they cannot take more than “one class or three credit hours online”.

What does it mean?

• This, in effect, means Indians currently enrolled in schools or programmes that are entirely online for the fall semester will have to come back home.
• They can stay baack only if they take alternative steps such as a move to a school that offers “in-person instruction.”
• Students, who had come back to India after the pandemic forced American campuses to shut down, will not be permitted to enter the US
• if their classes are entirely online.
• The same applies to prospective (or new) students who were going to join in the fall semester.

Any Exemptions?

• Indian students enrolled in universities that have announced a hybrid blend,
• Such students remain in the US, and those who returned to India will be allowed to re-enter the US.
• They will even be allowed to take more than one class or three credit hours online.
• However, this relaxation only applies to students enrolled for full-time academic courses and not for vocational or language courses.
• Thus F-1 visa students in English language training programmes or M-1 visa students (vocational coursework) are not exempted.

F-1 Visa

• The F-1 Visa (Academic Student) allows you to enter the US as a full-time student at an accredited college, university.
• On an F-1 visa, you are allowed to work on campus up to 20 hours per week during regular full-time quarters or semesters.

Does this mean online Students have to suspend their course midway?

• No, those who will have to leave the US can continue the course online from their home countries.

What happens if students fail to transfer or return to their home countries?

• In this case, students will be deported back to their home countries.
• They may also face future bans on entry into the US.

Why has the US government announced these changes?

• International students in the US are required to do most of their learning through contact classes.
• Due to pandemic and the subsequent campus shutdowns, government provided temporary exemptions for international students to take more online classes.
• However, these exemptions were made only for the spring and summer semesters.
• Some are seeing this as a pressure tactic to get universities to reopen for the fall semester.

How it impacts Indian students?

• Indians form the second largest chunk of foreign students in the US (18% of all foreign students), after China.
• In fact, only Indian students have shown an increase in enrollment of nearly 1.7% between 2017 and 2018

How universities have reacted to this?

• While certain institutes such as Harvard Business School reacted immediately, by opting for hybrid classes instead of the earlier planned online courses,
• Others like Colombia University are working to find a way around this order.

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