Harvard bars first-year international students from campus in face of US visa restrictions News
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Harvard bars first-year international students from campus in face of US visa restrictions

Harvard University dean Rakesh Khurana announced in an email to students on Wednesday that the University’s first-year international students will not be allowed to come to campus this year. The decision was made in consequence of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy announced earlier this month restricting visas for international students pursuing online-only instructional programs at US colleges and universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this announcement, 17 states and many universities including Harvard and MIT filed suit, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against possible deportations of international students already in the US. ICE ultimately decided to rescind the visa policy on July 14 as to those students, restoring a previous exemption, but it continues to apply to newly admitted international students who require F-1 sponsorship. Because all of Harvard’s course instruction for undergraduates this year will be fully remote, any new incoming student who needs a Form I-20 to begin their studies will be unable to enter the US under the F-1 status.

Students affected by the announcement at Harvard will have the option of taking entirely online classes from home (i.e. outside the country) or deferring their enrollment. Khurana also guaranteed that any student who chose to defer by July 31 would obtain housing when the school was able to welcome the students to campus safely.

In his statement, Khurana condemned the position that the government has put US universities in by saying that:

We abhor any policies that seek to force us to choose between our community’s health and the education of our international students. The University is working closely with members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to extend the online exemption to newly admitted students and ensure that this flexibility remains in place for the duration of the public health emergency. Unfortunately, we don’t anticipate any change to the policy in time for the fall semester. 

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