New Delhi: After the US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced that foreign students will have to leave if their classes are taught entirely online, India raised the matter during talks between the two foreign offices on Tuesday. US officials have reportedly assured New Delhi that they will try to “mitigate the impact”.
The ICE guidance states that non-immigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online cannot take a full online course load for fall semester 2020 and remain in the United States.
This is likely to impact a large number Indian students, who comprise the second largest group of international students after China in the United States.
Also read: Foreign Students Must Leave the US If Their Classes Go Online This Fall: ICE
Indian and American top diplomats held scheduled foreign office on Tuesday, which was led by foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and US undersecretary of state for political affairs, David Hale.
As per sources, the US side took note of Indian concerns and “said they will keep the best interests of the students in mind and would try and mitigate impact”. “Detailed implementation guidelines are yet to come out,” they added.
In the Ministry of External Affairs’ readout of the talks, the agenda for talks included ways to further enhance “mutually beneficial trade and people-to-people ties, including through visa facilitation for students and professionals”.
Last month, the US administration also suspended issuing H-1B visas for highly skilled workers until the end of 2020. India had stated that it was “likely to affect the movement of Indian skilled professionals who avail of these non-immigrant visa programmes to work lawfully in the US”.
The state department’s press note said that the “discussions included ongoing threats to the rules-based international order, bilateral and multilateral diplomatic cooperation, maritime security, and the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Both the press communiques said that the two sides affirmed their commitment to a “free, open, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific”.
There was no specific mention of the ongoing Sino-Indian border tensions, but both press releases said that the two nations discussed all relevant regional and international issues. They both mentioned that India is likely to host the ‘two plus two’ ministerial summit later this year.
The MEA statement also noted that both countries “agreed on the need to deepen cooperation in the United Nations, especially during India’s membership of the United Nations Security Council for the period 2021-2022”.
