Coronavirus: US will send international students home if their classes go online-only during pandemic

Universities and colleges are still deciding how to return to campus life in the absence of a vaccine and with cases surging in many states

Students studying in the US on certain non-immigrant visas will not be allowed to stay in the US this fall if their classes move entirely online, even though hundreds of colleges and universities are still deciding how they will teach during the pandemic.

In a press release on Monday, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the new “modifications” to existing exemptions for students during the pandemic, among them that “nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States”, and that incoming students registered at schools that will only teach online will not be allowed into the country.

“Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs 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 agency announced.

During the pandemic so far, the US immigration authorities have let non-immigrant international students take more online courses than would normally be allowed.

The new announcement all but ends those exemptions for most international students, and essentially stakes their immediate future as US residents on universities’ plans for the next semester and in turn, on the evolution of the US outbreak, which is getting notably worse in numerous states.

Because international students overwhelmingly pay for their studies with funds from outside the US, they are a valuable source of revenue for the economy; the US Department of Commerce estimated that in 2018, they contributed some $45 billion.

Not all of them will be affected by the new ruling. Many universities are – for now – still planning full return to teaching, while others are set to adopt a “hybrid” model that will see at least some number of classes taught in person.

As far as international students at those institutions are concerned, ICE says it will be incumbent on the school to certify to the authorities that the students are not taking online-only courses.

Depending on how the pandemic unfolds in the coming months, many international students could face serious logistical problems returning home if their countries will not allow travel from the US because of its high infection rate.

The extent to which ICE would be obliged to help them in these circumstances is not clear.