27 Apr 2025

Homeland Security Reinstates About 1200 F-1 Students in SEVIS

by Bonnie | | 0

Under pressure from multiple lawsuits representing about 290 students so far, the Department of Homeland Security decided to reinstate the visa records it abruptly terminated for of about 1200 foreign students.

F-1 visas are tracked in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System for foreign students working as research assistants or pursuing graduate studies in the USA.

DHS claims it is not reinstating any revoked visas, only reinstating access to records of them in SEVIS. When a student’s F-1 status cannot be verified in SEVIS, their work and studies grind to a halt even if their status is valid.

An example is Dartmouth University computer science PhD student Xiaotian Liu from China, whose record was deleted from SEVIS even though his F-1 visa and his student status were still active. He sued.

Federal District Court Judge Samantha Elliott in New Hampshire granted him a temporary restraining order against DHS’s actions, extended it and was on the verge of deciding whether to escalate to issuing a preliminary injunction when DHS announced it will reinstate SEVIS record access for 1,200 foreign students. Elliott described DHS arguments in her court as “a bit Kafkaesque.” The lawyer representing DHS said Liu’s status was not actually terminated, but Liu could still ask DHS to reinstate the status that DHS claims is still active.

It is not clear what criteria the DHS used to decide which students to drop from SEVIS, what criteria DHS will use to decide which students to reinstate in SEVIS, or whether only students who filed lawsuits will be reinstated.

Click here for more details.

Click here for more about the specific case of Xiaotian Liu.

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