International students across the US are seeing their visas revoked

International students across the US in recent weeks discovered that their legal status had been terminated or their student visas had been revoked with little notice.

On April 25, after mounting court challenges, federal officials said the government would restore international students' legal status while it developed a framework to guide future terminations. Then, in a court filing on April 28, it shared the new policy with an expanded range of reasons students' status can be cancelled.

Lawyers for students who challenged the terminations said the new guidelines allow for quicker deportations and serve to justify the actions taken by the government earlier in the spring.

Grounds for terminating students' status now include the revocation of the visas they used to enter the US. They also allow for terminating students' status if their names appear in a criminal or fingerprint database in a way that was not permitted in the past, plaintiffs' attorneys said.

At least 1,222 students at 187 colleges, universities and university systems since late March have seen their visas revoked or their legal status terminated, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records.

But the number of affected students appears to be much higher. At least 4,736 students' visa records were terminated in SEVIS, the database storing international students records that maintains their legal status, according to an April 10 ICE Homeland Security Investigations response to inquiries from Senate and House committees.

Students who come from other countries to study in the U.S. must obtain a visa, which requires them to demonstrate they have enough financial support to complete their course of study. They must first be admitted to a school that is approved by the U.S. government, and then generally interview at a consulate abroad to obtain their entry visa.

Once in the country, international students must remain in good standing with their academic program, and are generally limited in their ability to work off-campus. After they graduate, they can work in the US for 12 months, and up to 36 months for STEM majors, before they must seek a longer-term employment visa.

International students' status is maintained in a system called SEVIS, or the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. Generally, students' status is terminated in SEVIS when they fail to maintain standing with their program, or when they graduate or transition to a different visa. Terminations, until now, have largely been initiated by schools doing routine data updates.

In recent weeks, colleges discovered their students' status to be terminated by the government, a significant shift from past practices. The terminations often had minimal written justification or notice from the government, leaving students with little information on why they are now out of status.

Students have filed lawsuits across the country, with a number of temporary restraining orders granted in lawsuits from New Hampshire, Montana and Wisconsin.

International students have also been caught in the crosshairs of a standoff between Harvard and the Trump administration, which has made various threats against the Ivy League institution after learning of its defiance against demands related to activism on campus, antisemitism and diversity. One of those threats involves a restriction on Harvard's ability to host international students.