About 500 students from Andhra Pradesh, mostly from Hyderabad, face the risk of deportation from the US after authorities raided and shut down Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area, on January 19.
Around 300 engineering students from Hyderabad were admitted to TriValley for the MS programme in engineering last year.
They had just begun their third semester on January 10 this year, when the news broke that the university was not recognised by the regulatory authorities in the US and was operating illegally. Hundreds of students have been left in the lurch and their parents back home are worried. Many have taken loans or borrowed the `6-8 lakh required to finance their children’s study.
Mr Jafar Ahmed, a resident of Dilsukhnagar, whose younger brother Azam was studying at TriValley, says the family got a bank loan of `4 lakh and borrowed another two lakh privately. He points out that the university has several brokers in the city canvassing for admissions. “If the university was fake then why did the US consulate in Hyderabad issue visas?” he questioned.
His brother is very hard up, he says. “He informed us that the police have detained students -and were not allowing them to move outside.” Many students are Jan. 25: Many students are planning to leave as soon as possible to avoid being interrogated. There are reports that the deportation process has started against some students.
If a university is shut down, students on F-1 visas lose their status within a stipulated time. These students have been making desperate calls to PIO immigration attorneys.
A posting on the website of the Murthy law firm said,
