The latest regulations and policies on visas for American international students are stricter.

Since the epidemic this year, the United States has tightened the visa policy for international students, which is a very difficult thing for many students who can't go to school on time because of the epidemic. China students, as the majority of American students, will change the visa tightening policy. Let's look at the details.

The latest regulations on visas for international students in the United States have been an unsettled year for China students studying in the United States. In the past few months, with the Trump administration tightening its visa policy, the mood of international students has fluctuated. At first, 3,000 foreign students from China who were accused of military background were expelled. Subsequently, China students and researchers with military background were suspended from obtaining visas, and even US lawmakers suggested stopping issuing visas to all China students in science and engineering.

On August 3 1, US Secretary of State Pompeo hinted again that the United States is considering a total ban on China students and scholars studying in the United States, because it is necessary to prevent China from infiltrating into the United States and obtaining important intellectual property achievements in the United States. It is reported that the new restrictions will be announced in the next few weeks or months.

In March this year, US President Donald Trump declared a "national emergency" to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau under the US Department of Homeland Security immediately issued a guidance saying that in response to the epidemic, a visa-free policy was adopted during the state of emergency to allow international students to study online.

On July 6, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau announced that international students in the fall semester of 2020 will not be able to obtain visas to the United States or maintain their existing visas if they only take online courses. This new visa policy for international students has aroused widespread criticism and litigation in American society.

Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the lead in filing a lawsuit on the 8th, demanding that the federal court stop the new visa regulations. According to the complaint, this new visa regulation violated the US Federal Administrative Procedure Law and was issued without any justifiable reason, public comment and thoughtlessness. Subsequently, Johns Hopkins University and other universities, including California and Washington, D.C., also filed lawsuits to prevent the implementation of the new regulations. According to reports, as of 14 of the court session, the lawsuits of the two universities were supported by legal documents submitted by hundreds of universities, more than 70 higher education groups and more than a dozen high-tech companies such as Google and Microsoft in the United States.

Recently, the latest SEVP data report released by the US Immigration and Customs Administration (ice) shows that the number of China students studying in the United States in 20 19 was only about 1% lower than that in 20 18, and China is still the largest group of international students in the United States. Among them, there were 36,842 China students studying in the United States during K- 12, accounting for 47%.

This report based on SEVIS data shows that although the number of students with American visas decreased slightly in 20 19, it decreased by 1.7% compared with 20 18. However, there are still 1.52 million international students with F- 1 and M- 1 visas and 530,000 visiting scholars with J- 1 visas studying and further studying in the United States.