The preliminary adjustments, which featured in a USCIS coverage guide replace on August 27, acknowledged that F-1 visa holders learning overseas for longer than 5 months might not stay actively enrolled in an authorized establishment and would “want a brand new Type I-20 to be readmitted in pupil standing”.
The “technical correction” made by USCIS on November 26, eliminated the troublesome paragraph, changing it with: “For details about necessities for F-1 pupil participation in examine overseas packages, see DHS’s Examine within the States webpage.”
The guide nonetheless accommodates the assertion that, “If an F-1 pupil leaves america for greater than 5 months and isn’t in a position to stay enrolled on the pupil’s ICE SEVP-certified faculty, the coed won’t be able to take care of pupil standing”.
Although there isn’t a particular examine overseas coverage info on the Examine within the States linked homepage, further sources on the web site assist the long-standing coverage understanding that college students who stay enrolled at an authorized 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.
Almost 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 could hastily be in a extra compliance focussed, heightened scrutiny panorama,” stated Fragomen immigration accomplice Aaron Blumberg in a webinar on November 1 hosted by The PIE.
The correction has come as a specific aid to worldwide college students thrown into confusion by the preliminary replace, lots of whom had been compelled to vary their examine 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 shifting 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 pupil visas.
Below 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 could hastily 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 pupil visas for DHS – seemed 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 individuals … These sorts of conflicts between targets and insurance policies occur on a regular basis,” Intead CEO Ben Waxman instructed The PIE in October.
Nevertheless, for some, the preliminary error and extended correction time are indicative of the broader problem of navigating the US’s over-complicated immigration system.
