After the United States of America (U.S.A.,) announced restrictions on student visas for ones pursuing online classes, it created panic amongst students raising several questions.
On the 6th of July, The U.S.A.,Immigration Department suspended student visas to international students pursuing online academic programmes.
In addition, students already in the United States pursuing online classes would be deported back to their native countries.
The decision was taken by the United States Government in the wake of the Novel Coronavirus.
The United States Immigration and Customs Department (ICE) confirmed the orders. The ICE said, “international students will not be given a student visa (F-1 or vocational course M-1 visa) if they pursue a course in the United States that is offered fully online. This is applicable for the Fall 2020 semester that will begin from the end of August.”
According to sources, a total of 1,095,299 international students were studying in the United States in 2019. Of the total, 202,014 which is 18.4 % are Indians.
Speaking about a few basic questions, students staying in the U.S., would be deported back, if they are taking online classes.
Majority of universities and institutes including Harvard decided to shift their classes online for the academic year of 2020-2021.
Regarding the exemptions, only students pursuing in person classes are allowed to stay back. Besides this, no reason or issue is applicable to the suspension on students visa and immigration of international students taking online classes.
Speaking about the duration of the issued suspension, the ICE is yet to release a guidelines involving process, exemption, duration of the suspension of student visas.
As of now, the ICE guidelines are only applicable for the Fall 2020 Semester.
However, immigration experts have said there would be a status quo on these new norms, following which one would not be able to apply for a student visa if the course is fully online.
The online classes for the academic year 2020-2021 would not affect your degree or credibility.
The online courses offered by the institutes would be similar to those offline course modules.
The new restriction would be imposed from August, meanwhile students residing in the U.S.A., would be sent back soon.
The United States of America has the highest number of the Novel Coronavirus cases globally.
According to the official report, the U.S., has a total of 3,097,238 cases with 133,991 cases till the 8th of July.
