19-05-2025
US is reinstating records for international students — but for some, it's too late
A student who left faces long wait for another US visa
The man in Houston left within about a week of learning his legal status had been terminated. Around that time, he also received an email that the visa he used to enter the US had been revoked. He believes his termination stemmed from a 2021 fraud case that was dismissed.
Over nearly a decade he had built a life in the US, where he was enrolled in 'optional practical training,' which allows foreign students to stay and work for up to three years on their student visas. In his home country, he is now looking for work and living with his mother.
The wait time for a US visa interview is at least a year, he said.
Even if he got another visa, returning would be complicated because of his financial situation. He had a car loan and credit cards in the US that he can't afford to pay after losing his job, and his credit score has since dropped, he said.
'Revoking a visa or revoking a SEVIS status does not just affect the educational side of things, it affects the whole life,' said the student, who has struggled with feelings of loneliness and also grief over his father's recent death.
SEVIS is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database that tracks international students' compliance with their visa status.
Students who left the country may not have known their rights or had the resources to hire a lawyer, said Ben Loveman, an immigration attorney. They now will have a harder time being reinstated, he said.
'There were huge consequences,' Loveman said.
Some students see new risk to studying in US
For a Nepali programmer in Texas who had his status terminated, the ordeal brought up a mistake he thought he had left in the past.
The programmer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear or retaliation, was arrested four years ago for drunken driving. He said he took responsibility for his actions, performing community service hours, serving probation and paying fines. The judge told him the records could be sealed after two years, but the case appears to explain why he was targeted by immigration authorities.
'I followed everything,' he said. 'If they're going to take it all, at least give me due process.'
His status has since been restored, and the programmer, who is on an OPT program, has gone back to his job. But the episode hasn't faded from his mind.
If the right opportunity emerged in another country like New Zealand or Canada, he said he would take it and leave.
A student at Iowa State University who also requested anonymity out of concern about being targeted, said he is looking for options to leave the US, after what he describes as a 'dark period.'
The Ph.D. student said his status termination pushed him to a mental breaking point. He had a plane ticket back home to Bangladesh reserved. He hardly left his apartment, and when he did, he felt he was being followed.
He attributes his termination to pending charges against him for marijuana possession, but he said he hadn't been convicted.
After his status reinstatement, he restarted a teaching assistant job he had lost. Then, he had to catch up on grading almost three weeks of assignments for dozens of students.
While he's relieved to get back to school, he's confident about his decision to leave by the end of the year — either for home or Europe. The degree is not worth the risk of another status termination, he said.
'How much should I suffer to continue here?' he said.
