The Immigration and Custom Enforcement said that visas would not be issued to students enrolled in schools or programs that are completely online for the fall semester and will not permit these students to enter the United States.
The United States has issued a statement on Monday that it would not allow foreign students to stay in the country if all of their classes are moved online in the fall because of the coronavirus crisis.
US Immigration and Custom Enforcement said in a statement that, nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.
“Students who are residing in the United States at present and enrolled in such programs are informed to leave the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status,” ICE said.
ICE said the State Department has also warned that If they do not leave, they would face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.
It is clearly informed that visas would not be issued to students enrolled in schools or programs that are completely online for the fall semester. It is learnt that US Customs and Border Protection would also not permit these students to enter the United States.
As number of schools and universities are looking at a hybrid model of in-person and online instruction but some, including Harvard University, have said all classes will be conducted online.
Moreover, Most US colleges and universities have not yet announced their plans for the fall semester.
Only 40 percent of undergraduates would be allowed to return to campus but their instruction would be online, said Harvard.
According to the Institute of International Education (IIE), there were more than one million international students in the United States for the 2018-19 academic year.
International students accounted for 5.5 percent of the total US higher education population, and their contribution was $44.7 billion to the US economy in 2018.
The largest number of international students came from China, followed by India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada.
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