The Trump administration changes its policies overnight: the study visa rules are changed back to the old ones, and the new policy was aborted in less than a week

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What does it feel like to slap yourself in the face?

On July 12, due to public outrage over the newly enacted policy for international students, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it would officially make changes - basically returning to the "old days."

This is definitely great news for international students, as it means they no longer have to modify their fall schedules or worry about their study visas expiring.

Today, ICE updated the document showing that the revised rules for studying abroad are as follows:

International students in the United States cannot choose to take all their classes online;

International students outside the United States can choose to take online courses locally;

For students who have not returned to the United States to attend school but are still taking online classes, their student status remains valid and they only need to keep it activated in SEVIS.

In addition, students who have paid the I-901 SEVIS fee can rest assured that the document clearly states that such students will not receive a refund or be asked to leave the country.

The new regulations also state:

Schools that adopt fully online teaching need to send their teaching change plans to SVEP before July 15, while schools that adopt a hybrid of online and offline teaching need to issue new I-20 forms to students and submit teaching change plans before August 1.

Earlier this week, ICE released a document requiring that if international students at American universities are unable to attend offline courses in the fall of 2020 and can only take online courses, they will lose their study visas and be deported.

This move caused an uproar in public opinion.

Scholars including Andrew Ng criticized the move, saying it would harm the United States, students and universities.

American universities, such as Stanford, Harvard, and MIT, have taken up legal weapons and announced that they will sue the Trump administration, demanding the withdrawal of this regulation.

Just one day before ICE revised its rules, Johns Hopkins University (JHU) also joined the ranks of those opposing and suing the Trump administration.

In its official statement, JHU listed several "illegal" actions of the US government:

The rules are arbitrary and capricious, violating the Administrative Procedure Act;

This is in violation of the authority’s requirement to keep the status quo in place until the COVID emergency is over.

The government did not provide the required notice or opportunity to comment

Failure to provide due process

Violation of the constitutionally protected academic freedom of universities

The facts are sufficient and well-founded. In the face of strong public opinion, the US ICE finally revised the new policy on student visas, thus avoiding an unnecessary lawsuit.

Document address: https://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/sevisFall2020_FAQ.pdf