Coronavirus: Foreign students will not get US visas if courses shift online
New guidance comes after series of measures to restrict foreigners from US work and study
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Nirmal Ghosh US Bureau Chief In Washington, Nirmal Ghosh
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Foreign students, and many schools and universities in the United States, were shocked and confused by a notice from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to the effect that students taking exclusively online courses no longer qualify for visas.
The problem: Many schools and universities are doing just that - moving online - at least for the near future to avoid having students in close proximity and risking further spread of the coronavirus that remains rampant in many states.
More than 1.1 million foreign students are reported to be holding active US student visas.
In a release on Monday, the ICE said: "The Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programmes that are fully online for the fall semester nor will US Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States.
"Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programmes must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status. If not, they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings."
The new guidance comes in the wake of a series of measures to restrict foreigners from work and study in the US, on the grounds that they take jobs that Americans could do at a time when the economy has flatlined due to coronavirus-induced restrictions on businesses.
But analysts see this as part of the Trump administration's broader agenda to curb immigration in general. "The Trump administration seems to be doing everything it can to stop all immigration to the United States," said Cornell Law School professor Stephen Yale-Loehr, an adviser to the National Foundation for American Policy.
The latest guideline comes on the heels of a June 22 presidential proclamation on immigration, which blocked H-1B, H-2B, J and L non-immigrants who are outside the US on June 24 and without a valid visa or travel document from travelling to the US at least until Dec 31. The measure would be periodically reviewed and may be extended, the proclamation said.
With many US schools announcing that the upcoming autumn semester will be all online, the new guidance means enrolled students may have to up and leave the country, and students intending to enrol may have to reconsider study plans.
Institutions - now figuring out how to proceed with the autumn semester - will have to find a way to hold in-person classes or lose the foreign students who are a major source not only of revenue but also of academic talent, especially in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.
Harvard University has said it would offer only online classes for the 2020-2021 school year.
Students going to schools operating hybrid models - offering both in-person and online classes - will be allowed into the US as long as they take "the minimum number of online classes required to make normal progress in their degree programme" and not take a fully online course, the ICE notice said.
Mr Richard Stengel, a former official in the Obama administration and a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, described the latest move as "narrow short-term thinking" by the Trump administration.
"These foreign students bring in many billions to our gross domestic product, as well as promote our public diplomacy," he tweeted.
Dr Esther Brimmer, CEO of the non-profit Association of International Educators, said: "Our nation risks losing global talent with new policies that hurt us academically and economically."
