Move to Affect Indians, Raised Issue With US: MEA on F-1 Visa Row

Trump administration passed an order to not give foreign students US visas and deport them if courses go online.

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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday, 9 July, said that India has raised concerns over the F-1 student visa row with the United States and said that a large number of Indian students will have to return to the country if the rules are implemented.

The Donald Trump administration on Monday passed an order to not give international students US visas and deport them if courses in their respective colleges and universities go online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are concerned over the possibility that this may lead to the return of large number of Indian students studying in the US. We have conveyed our concern to the US side,” MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in the weekly media briefing.

“It was raised by the Foreign Secretary with his counterpart during Foreign Office Consultations. We have urged US that we need to keep in mind the role that educational exchanges and people to people relations have played in development of our relations. US has noted our concerns,” Srivastava said.

Those affected by this move would be non-immigrant F-1 and M-1 students, the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agency said, adding that they should depart the country or take a transfer to a school having in-person instruction.

The order will impact thousands of Indian students studying in the US.

Meanwhile, the Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Wednesday sued the Trump administration over its order.