The US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) has indicated that it is ready to consider reinstating the immigration status of those Indian students, who have lost their student visas due to the closure of a California-based 'sham' university.
"We received a message from ICE today, in which they indicated that they would consider the possibility of reinstatement of their (students) visa status through I-539," Susmita Gongulee Thomas, Consul General, Indian Consulate San Francisco, told PTI.
I-539 is the form used by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for visa extension and change of immigration status. When one is out of the visa status for one reason or the other under a particular law of the US and the individual is not in criminal violation, USCIS may agree to give the reinstatement of his or her status under this form.
Duped by the authorities of the Tri-Valley University, which has now been shut down, hundreds of Indian students, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, faced the threat of being deported back home after having lost their student visa status.
However, no immediate detail of ICE's one-liner to Indian Consulate in San Francisco was available.
Thomas hoped that more details and clarification on this would be available from ICE early next week. She said all indications are that this is not going to be a general amnesty and ICE would consider the request for status change or visa extension on a case by case basis.
"It seems quite positive that they are willing to consider at least the possibility of reinstating of some of the students," Thomas said.
"I think it will be case by case basis, because earlier we had clarified that there is nothing like the general amnesty. It would be case by case, because they feel that there might be some students who are in criminal violation of the immigration," she added.
Meanwhile, nearly 150 Tri-Valley students turned up for the free legal aid camp organised by the Indian Consulate in San Francisco in association with the South Asian Bar Association (SABA). Two immigration lawyers along with one civil and one criminal lawyer from SABA spend several hours with these students on a one-on-one basis yesterday.