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, “Some of the F-1 TriValley students may have options to try to change status in the US. Some are potentially eligible to request a change to H-4 or other dependant statuses.
Others might be eligible for H1B status through employers, but may not have enough time to file for the soon-to-be reached FY 2011 H1B cap. Those who have previously held H1B status and do not need cap numbers would not face this problem,” it advised.
An international student is allowed to work ‘on campus’, legally, for 20 hours on the basis of his i-20. If a student acquires a job outside the campus he should secure a CPT (Curricular Practical Training) from the university which will allow him to work legally for 20 hours on the same student visa (F1) status.
However, Tri-Valley University was issuing student visas directly by giving a CPT and not an i-20. That means the student can work off campus but only a the position which is on the CPT. If the CPT says you work as a ‘Program Analyst’, you have to. But some students were working in gas stations/ shopping malls etc for more than 40 hours a week, which is illegal and against their immigration status.
Source : DC