US won’t let in students for online courses

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Washington, July 25

The US immigration authority has issued a new policy stating that freshly enrolled foreign students who are seeking online-only study this fall will be barred from entering the country.

The decision comes days after the Trump administration dropped its controversial plan to expel international students if their universities switched to online-only classes due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

DACA applications put in 'pending' bucket

The US has said it's putting all new DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) applications in a "pending" bucket. DACA allows young immigrants brought to the US as children to legally work and shields them from deportation. AP

The new policy was announced by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which said that its guidance granting visa flexibility to non-immigrant students only applied to those who were actively enrolled at American schools on March 9.

Students and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security, in a revised guideline for Fall 2020, asked universities not to issue the necessary visa

paperwork for those international students who are fully enrolled in online courses. The designated Dean of Students Office or DSOs should not issue a Form I-20, "Certificate of Eligibility for Non-immigrant Student Status," for a student in new or Initial status who is outside of the US and plans to take classes at an SEVP-certified educational institution fully online," said the revised guidelines, which were initially issued on March 9.

"As a result, new or initial non-immigrant students who intend to pursue a full course of study that will be conducted completely online will likely not be able to obtain an F-1 or M-1 visa to study in the US," said the guidelines issued jointly by SEVP and ICE. "If a non-immigrant student was enrolled in a course of study in the US on March 9, 2020, but subsequently left the country, that student likely remains eligible for a visa since the March 2020 guidance permitted a full online course of study from inside the US or from abroad," it said. — PTI

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