US visa guidelines: Indian students find relief in hybrid system

The United States’ new guidelines, which says foreign students would not be allowed to remain in the country if all of their classes are moved online in the Fall because of Covid-19, has come as a bolt from the blue for many Indian students in the US.

Anxious about their future, they have been contacting their respective universities to decide their future course of action.

Read: United States to withdraw visas for foreign students whose classes move online

For some, there is the panacea called the hybrid model and that comes as a relief.

Anurag Unnikrishnan, pursuing his Masters in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, says, “As soon as the news started doing its rounds on WhatsApp and the social media, anxiety gripped a lot of students as you can understand, given the whole situation. There is a lot of speculation going on about students having to leave the US and return home.”

“The exemption says that if there is a hybrid model in place, then the students can stay back,” says Anurag.

According to the hybrid model, he said some classes would be online and the remaining would be on campus.

“The memo that we received from the University said there would be a hybrid option. Few courses would be in the hybrid category. For this Fall semester, we have to select at least one course from hybrid and the rest from online so that we can retain our visa status and stay in the US,” he informed.

However, Anurag says that he’s unaware of what the other universities have decided.

“I am expecting them to go along the same route given the fact that there are one-and-half million international students in the US and you can’t expect everyone to leave. I think most universities would take the same decision and have some hybrid model as part of their curriculum in the Fall semester,” he added.

Prashil Panchal is a graduate student at School of Pharmacy, USC. “Today we saw a new guideline imposed by the ICE suggesting that if the university entails to make the Fall 2020 semester completely online, the current international students would ask to leave the US and will be sent back to their home country.”

However, Prashil says “this rule doesn’t affect me. Our university has implied an ‘hybrid system’ of classes where they will be providing in-person classes as well as online classes.”

“The graduate international students are supposed to take a minimum of eight credits per semester in order to be a full-time student at USC. Out of this according to the new rule only three credits can be opted for online courses and other five or more credits should be taken as in person class,” Prashil informs.

Elaborating on the new decision, he says, “I feel this is a stupid rule as it doesn’t benefit anyone except it would force the university to not make their semester completely online.”
“Given the fact that we are going through a world pandemic and the USA is suffering the most, the decision of the university to be completely online is valid. I would consider my health first over education. Looking at the current situation, this new guideline makes no sense,” Prashil adds.

“This is the last thing I need write now”— that’s how Abhivineet, doing his Masters in computer science at USC, reacted when he first read about the new guidelines.

“If you look at the last two months, it’s been like a roller-coaster ride. Something or the other keeps coming up.”

He says although the old universities may have faced situations like this, the new universities may not know how to tackle such situations which makes its understandable.

“My university was quick in responding. Guess they were flooded with emails by all the concerned international students. They were quick to respond saying they have revised the schedule for Fall, which include hybrid classes.”

He says although the pressure has lessened, he thinks it is unfair because “you have expectations when you come so far from home. You come here to prove something.”

Abhivineet thinks it’s understandable for a country to prioritise the health of their citizens first. “However, I also feel international students have been more responsible in reducing the spread of the virus.”

As these students wait and watch what the future holds for them, Abhivineet adds with a chuckle, “I also expected to have some fun as I live in Los Angeles. I am a Lakers’ supporter. Thought I’ll be watching some matches this Summer. That’s not going to happen.”