US bars entry of foreign students into country if university courses are 100% online

The US immigration services Friday said students already in the country could stay even if universities declared fully online models, but those abroad won't be allowed to enter.

File photo of pedestrians walking through Harvard Yard on the closed Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 20 April | Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg

Kansas City: Newly enrolled international students can’t come to the U.S. if their university has announced a 100% online reopening for the fall semester, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on Friday.

While students already studying in the U.S. at schools that have declared fully online models are allowed to stay, those abroad won’t be allowed to enter the country unless their schools plan to offer a hybrid or fully in-person model of instruction.

The directive comes less than two weeks after ICE rescinded a policy requiring all international students to take at least one online class after a widespread backlash and a lawsuit filed by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. – Bloomberg