F-1 visa revoked: How foreign students can deal with Trump-era rules

A growing number of international students in the United States are being ordered to leave the country after their student visas were revoked without notice — a shift from past practice that is leaving universities concerned and students confused.

 

Some have received emails from the US Department of State telling them to leave immediately. Others have been detained before their universities were even informed of a change in their legal status. In some cases, students have been targeted over criminal infractions or political activism. At several colleges, officials are discovering these visa cancellations only after running internal checks.

 

Visa revoked, but students not always told

 

 

Students on F-1 visas, used for full-time academic study, have traditionally been allowed to stay in the country and finish their education, even if their entry visa was revoked. That practice now appears to be changing.

 

“Generally, if the visa of a student has been revoked in the US, the student is legally allowed to stay in the US and complete the education,” said Sheela Murthy, president and CEO of the Murthy Law Firm in the US.

 

“The visa revocation only applies to the visa that is stamped in the passport and does not apply to a person's legal status in the US. Under the law, the person's legal status remains intact and hence the F1 student should be allowed to stay on F1 status and continue the education in the US,” she told Business Standard.

 

But in recent weeks, students have reported being told to leave the US immediately after receiving notice that their visas were cancelled — without any indication that their status had changed in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the federal database used to monitor student visas.

 

SEVIS records cancelled without warning

 

Immigration lawyers and university officials say many of the cancellations are being linked to past legal offences.

 

“Many of the recent F-1 visa terminations and SEVIS record cancellations have been linked to students with prior criminal charges on their records,” said US-based immigration attorney Abhisha Parikh in a recent social media post.

 

“In several reported cases, students were found to have past offences such as DUI, theft, or domestic violence. These types of criminal charges—even if they occurred years ago or did not result in conviction—can raise red flags with the US Department of State and may lead to automatic visa revocation.”

 

Parikh said some students were unaware that old legal troubles could affect their immigration status until they were suddenly detained or notified that their SEVIS record had been terminated.

 

What international students can do

 

Parikh listed several steps that international students can consider if they are caught in this situation:

 

< File for F-1 reinstatement if the violation was beyond their control, they’ve been out of status for less than five months, and they’re still pursuing a full course of study  

< Depart the US voluntarily to avoid being labelled “out of status”, which could hurt future visa chances  

< File an Administrative Procedure Act lawsuit if the revocation happened without due process or proper explanation

 

Students are also being advised to stay in regular contact with their Designated School Officials (DSOs), monitor their SEVIS records, and seek legal guidance.

 

"These are troubling times"

 

At Minnesota State University in Mankato, five international students had their visas revoked recently. University president Edward Inch informed students and staff in a letter on Wednesday.

 

“These are troubling times, and this situation is unlike any we have navigated before,” Inch wrote.

 

The university said it learned about the revocations after checking student records following the detention of a Turkish student at the University of Minnesota. The State Department linked that case to a past conviction for drunk driving.

 

Colleges say federal officers are bypassing them

 

In past cases, immigration authorities worked through universities. Now, officials say student records are being quietly deleted without notice to the institutions.

 

News agency Associated Press reported, at the University of Texas at Austin, two international students discovered their visa status had been terminated after university staff checked a federal database. One student, from India, had their status cancelled on April 3. Another, from Lebanon, lost theirs on March 28. Both were graduates working full-time under post-study work rules, and neither had violated visa conditions, someone familiar with the cases told AP on condition of anonymity.

 

Several universities have reported similar incidents. Affected institutions include Arizona State, Cornell, North Carolina State, the University of Oregon, the University of Colorado and the University of Texas.

 

Students at Tufts and the University of Alabama have been detained. In at least one case, a student was held by immigration authorities before their university was informed of the status change.

 

US President Donald Trump made foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protests a focus of immigration enforcement during his election campaign. Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist with a green card, was recently detained. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said students involved in protests and those tied to “potential criminal activity” are being targeted.

 

In the past two weeks, universities have reported a sharp increase in revoked visas and terminated SEVIS records, catching students and staff off guard.