The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has announced that foreign students will take in-person courses at their schools to continue in the country for the fall 2020 semester. Students who live in the U.S. and take courses entirely online can face "immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings."
"There will always be exemptions to provide accessibility for schools and non-immigrant students, but as many institutions around the country are reopening, there is a concordant need to restore the federal regulations' carefully balanced protections," the ICE announcement says.
New students who enroll at schools that offer full online programs will not receive visas per ICE. Students who have already enrolled in such schools will have to transfer or leave the country.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, eight per cent of U.S. colleges are planning an online semester, including Harvard and Bowdoin, while some of those schools are hoping to invite a reduced number of students back to campus.
Students attending schools offering a hybrid model will be allowed to stay in the U.S., as long as they don't take a full online course load. Schools will be required to certify to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) that the students take "the minimum number of online classes required to make normal progress in their degree programme."
Meanwhile, international students remaining in their home countries will only be allowed to maintain their "active status" and take a remote online course load if their school is only online.
At least 23 per cent of U.S. colleges are preparing to introduce some kind of hybrid model, like Princeton University, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, and Northwestern. Online schools must notify SEVP by 15 July, while those who use a hybrid option must outline their plans by 1 August.
Some institutions have cited the ability of their hybrid model to transition to full online instruction as an advantage. Such a move could leave many students scrambling under the new policy of ICE; according to the announcement, any student who switches to an online-only program during the semester will be required to leave or transfer in that time.
Usually, F-1 visas that require foreign students to study full-time in the U.S. only require holders to count one online class per term against their study course. Following the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools across the country to move all instruction online, SEVP granted temporary exemptions to this policy, enabling international students to continue to take multiple remote courses without risking losing their visas.
The proposed legislation is one of the recent measures taken by the Trump administration to restrict immigration following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, President Trump ordered immigration officials to refuse a series of visas for foreign workers, including H-1Bs, for entry stamps.
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