US revokes students visa rule, foreign students heave a sigh of relief

The Trump administration has agreed to revoke its July 6 rule, which temporarily barred international students from staying in the United States unless they attend at least one in-person course.

The surprising move came following a nationwide outrage against July 6 order and a series of lawsuit filed by a large number of educational institutions, led by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, seeking a permanent injunctive relief to bar the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from enforcing the policy barring internationals students attending colleges and universities offering only online courses from staying in the country.

As many as 17 US states and the District of Columbia, along with top American IT companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft, joined MIT and Harvard in the US District in Massachusetts against the DHS and the ICE in seeking an injunction to stop the entire rule from going into effect.

The announcement comes as a big relief to international students including those from India.