On July 6 the government posted a significant change affecting international students without any warning. The new policy said that students already in the U.S. could not remain here, and new students could not enter the country, if they plan to take all online courses in the fall, even if their school only offers online courses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We explained the new policy in a previous post. The policy provoked widespread outrage and litigation. Harvard and MIT, and other institutions and states, almost immediately went to court to challenge the policy which was due to go into effect very quickly.
The very good news is that a week later, on July 14, just before a hearing was set to take place, the government rescinded the new policy directive and announced a return to the policy established March 9. The current situation is that nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students who were actively enrolled at a U.S. school on March 9, 2020, and otherwise complying with the terms of their nonimmigrant status can continue their U.S. studies even if fully online, during the pandemic emergency. But new students may not enter the U.S. to enroll in fully online studies. On July 24 the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), issued a new broadcast message to confirm this, and added new FAQs to help students and schools understand the changes.
