65 top US universities, including Harvard and MIT, have challenged the new student visa policy announced by Trump administration, in August this year, in the court.
They warned that this will have a detrimental effect on America’s higher education system.
Universities say that restricting foreign students to stay in America for more days is not in the country’s interest.
Under longstanding immigration policies, students can stay in America for six months even after the expiry of the visa duration.
Only after this period, the government will send them back the individual to their country and even impose a three-year ban from the US.
This period of six months starts from the next day of arrival of official notice of the expiry of the visa.
With the new rules, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can set retroactive start dates for an unlawful presence that begins the day after degree programme of an individual is complete or the day after the visa of a person expires.
The violator of this rule can be banned for three or ten years from coming back to the country.
Universities like Yale and Princeton say that this rule is not in the interest of academic institutions and the country as well as the students coming with academic visa in the F, J and M category.
These foreign students make important contributions to the US economy.
According to the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors, foreign students contributed $ 39 billion in the US economy in 2017-18.
-Harleen Sandhu
