US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun sending warning letters to thousands of students enrolled in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, causing a wave of fear among foreign students in the US.
The letters allege that they violated employment reporting regulations, which might result in the dismissal of their SEVIS records and possible deportation.
Indian students, who make up the second-largest group of overseas students in the US, are greatly impacted by this administrative action.
Are there any legal consequences in case of OPT enforcement breach?
Nearly 69,000 of the 270,000 Indian students enrolled in the US during the 2022–2023 academic year participated in the Open Doors Program, according to the report.
Administrative errors in submitting employment information have put these students on the verge of losing their legal status.
The stringent application of current OPT unemployment regulations is at the core of the problem. Under OPT rules, foreign students may be jobless for up to ninety days throughout their twelve-month OPT tenure. STEM-OPT extension recipients receive an extra 60 days.
They must update it on the SEVIS site within ten days when a student's occupation changes, whether it be through a new job, employment termination, or an alteration in location.
{{/usCountry}}They must update it on the SEVIS site within ten days when a student's occupation changes, whether it be through a new job, employment termination, or an alteration in location.
{{/usCountry}}“The recent ICE letters indicate that a student’s SEVIS record will be terminated if there is no employer information listed. This means the student either failed to report the OPT job on time or exceeded the allowed unemployment period,” Snehal Batra, an immigration lawyer with NPZ Law Group, told the TNN.
A look at past policy
In the past, SEVIS records were not usually instantly canceled for such transgressions, Batra continued, but the present administration's stringent policies make it easier for students to lose their status.
Earlier, SEVIS records were not generally instantly canceled for such violations; but the present administration's stringent policies make it easier for students to lose their status.
Historically, the Designated School Officials (DSOs) were in charge of overseeing the accuracy of SEVIS reporting. However, “ICE has been going in and terminating people who have accumulated more than 90 days of unemployment,” as per immigration attorney Jath Shao, who was cited by the TNN.
While US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has restored student status after records were updated, he said that in certain cases, DSO delays resulted in the failure to update SEVIS.