In a rare reversal, minutes from the start of a federal court hearing in a lawsuit brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) against the US government, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinded its July 6, 2020 announcement that barred foreign students from staying in the US if they only took online courses.
DHS’s March 2020 guidance still stands, allowing foreign students to take more online courses than usual during the COVID emergency, as long as the schools properly notify SEVP (the Student and Exchange Visitor Program) of the procedural changes within 10 business days.
SEVP has provided templates for reporting the changes on the COVID section of its website that can be found here.
