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ICE: International students can't stay in US for online-only college classes

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said if foreign students's programs go virtual, they must find an in-person replacement program or depart the United States.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday that there are new changes to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), saying non-immigrant F-1 students will need to be taking in-person classes to have their visas renewed. 

ICE said that when COVID-19 originally hit in the spring, SEVP created temporary exemptions that allowed these students to take more online courses than normal to accommodate the unprecedented circumstances.  But for the fall semester, those exemptions are being modified.

If F-1 students are in programs that plan to be virtual for the fall 2020 semester, ICE said they must find an in-person replacement program or be forced to leave the U.S. International students whose programs reopening plans include a mix of virtual and in-person learning will be allowed to take one class, or three credit hours, virtually, but will be required to prove to the SEVP that their program isn't entirely online. 

"The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States," a statement from ICE said. "Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures." 

Montgomery College said they enroll more than 550 F1 students from more than 120 countries in an average year.

"The presence of international students in American classrooms has a long history of building bridges to other nations," the community college said in a statement. "It is disappointing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has failed to see the true value of international students, by prohibiting F1 Visa-holders from remaining enrolled at colleges offering only online learning. Online learning has proven to be a vibrant alternative to face-to-face education in the midst of a highly contagious pathogen, allowing students to continue with their education while protecting their health. Such opportunities should be open to international, as well as domestic students." 

WUSA9 reached out to several other local universities for comment, and thus far, only George Washington University has responded, declining to comment. 

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