The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that all nonimmigrant students will be required to leave the country should their college courses go fully online during the fall 2020 semester, as indicated by a news release issued on Monday, July 6.
These are modifications as a part of the Student Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) as a response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and as indicated in the news release, it applies to nonimmigrant students on the F-1 and M-1 visas.
“The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States,” the news release stated.
This means, that as a result of this new change, active students—enrolled in college programs that fit this category—who are currently the United States are left with two choices as to how to proceed: they must either leave the country because the program they are taking may be fully online or resort to other measures such as transferring to another school that require actual physical attendance in classes in order to maintain their ability to stay in the country.
Anyone who does not abide by these new changes will face “immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings,” according to the news release.
On the other hand, nonimmigrant students (with F-1 visas) who are taking classes in the fall of 2020 whereby they show up in-person to class, will have a class credit limit, according to the news release. These students, when eligible, are limited to a maximum of one class or three credit hours online.
Nonimmigrant students who are taking classes that are hybrid in nature—meaning that the classes that these students take are a mix of both online and in-person classes—can take more than one class or three credit hours online.
However, the schools that use this model in their courses will have to verify their status as a hybrid class model, through the “Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status,” form from the SEVP.
ICE also indicated in the news release that schools are required to update their information regarding the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System within 10 days “if they begin the fall semester with in-person classes but are later required to switch to only online classes, or a nonimmigrant student changes their course selections, and as a result, ends up taking an entirely online course load.”
