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Wednesday, November 27, 2024

USCIS revises F-1 research overseas coverage following sector confusion 


The preliminary modifications, which featured in a USCIS coverage guide replace on August 27, acknowledged that F-1 visa holders finding out overseas for longer than 5 months may now not stay actively enrolled in a licensed establishment and would “want a brand new Kind I-20 to be readmitted in scholar standing”. 

The “technical correction” made by USCIS on November 26, eliminated the troublesome paragraph, changing it with: “For details about necessities for F-1 scholar participation in research overseas applications, see DHS’s Examine within the States webpage.” 

The guide nonetheless accommodates the assertion that, “If an F-1 scholar leaves america for greater than 5 months and isn’t capable of stay enrolled on the scholar’s ICE SEVP-certified faculty, the scholar won’t be able to take care of scholar standing”. 

Although there is no such thing as a particular research overseas coverage info on the Examine within the States linked homepage, further assets on the web site assist the long-standing coverage understanding that college students who stay enrolled at a licensed US establishment can stay in energetic SEVIS standing even when this system lasts longer than 5 months.  

The revision comes after stress from The PIE and Minerva College, in addition to letters despatched to USCIS by NAFSA and particular person establishments and immigration advisers. 

Practically three months on from the preliminary change, stakeholders had been involved that readability wouldn’t come earlier than a change of administration and welcomed the revision earlier than Donald Trump’s incoming administration on January 20, 2025.

“We’re working up in opposition to a change in administration… we might rapidly be in a extra compliance focussed, heightened scrutiny panorama,” stated Fragomen immigration associate Aaron Blumberg in a webinar on November 1 hosted by The PIE.

The correction has come as a selected aid to worldwide college students thrown into confusion by the preliminary replace, lots of whom had been pressured to alter their research plans over what was broadly assumed to be an “unintended” change. 

At Minerva College – the place undergraduate college students spend their first 12 months within the US earlier than transferring onto international rotations to Asia, Europe and South America, returning to San Fransisco for his or her fourth 12 months – the establishment had began flying 150 college students again from Berlin to the US to guard their scholar visas.  

Beneath the amended rule, an absence of longer than 5 months would have threatened each their F-1 standing and their OPT eligibility.

We’re working up in opposition to a change in administration… we might rapidly be in a extra compliance focussed, heightened scrutiny panorama

Aaron Blumberg, Fragomen

Bemusement over the coverage replace was heightened in October when USCIS and SEVP – the Scholar and Trade Customer Program which manages non-immigrant scholar visas for DHS – gave the impression to be providing conflicting recommendation on the coverage, with immigration attorneys calling for the alignment of company steerage.  

“USCIS is staffed and led by sensible well-meaning folks … These sorts of conflicts between objectives and insurance policies occur on a regular basis,” Intead CEO Ben Waxman instructed The PIE in October.  

Nonetheless, for some, the preliminary error and extended correction time are indicative of the broader problem of navigating the US’s over-complicated immigration system.  

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