Tri Valley students have three options: ICE

WASHINGTON: The US immigration authorities today said that the students of California-based Tri Valley University (TVU), which has been shut down on charges of massive visa fraud affecting hundreds of Indians, have three options which includes voluntary departure from the country or file for reinstatement of their visa status.

Students, mostly Indians, have been asked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE) to contact it directly for the available option they have.

ICE has posted an advisory on the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) link on ICE's website -- http://www.ice.gov/sevis/tri-valley-110118.htm -- to direct students how to contact an SEVP representative to obtain information about their options.

Students who contact SEVP representatives will be advised they have three options, said Virginia Kice, ICE spokesman.

"First: Report to ICE to be processed for voluntary departure from the United States. This option allows them to leave under their own power on a day of their choice, to remain in the United States without fear of being arrested while waiting to depart, and keeps their immigration history clean," Kice said, adding that the second option includes departing the US on their own.

The third and final option for students is "file for reinstatement with US Citizenship and Immigration Services," she said.

"When you call, SEVP will provide you with your options including the option to depart from the United States without an otherwise possibly applicable bar to re-admission in the future," says the advisory issued to the TVU students.

Meanwhile, in another memo to all schools and colleges that uses SEVIS, ICE informed that on January 18, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) either cancelled or terminated all initial, active and transfer-in student records associated with Tri-Valley University (TVU) in Pleasanton, California.

If a former TVU student applies for acceptance at a school, it is the responsibility of the school/college authorities to obtain an enrollment application and all subsidiary documents typically requested in order to make an admissions decision, including an assessment of the student's finances.

"And they must maintain these documents in the F-1 student's academic record," the memo said.

"If a student gains admission, a designated school official should contact the SEVP Help Desk at 800-892-4829 or SEVIShelpdesk@hp.com to manage the student record. Do not initiate a new SEVIS record for the student," it said.

ICE has also informed schools and colleges across the country that the employment authorisation for F-1 students at TVU terminated January 19.

SEVP terminated the records of all F-1 students enrolled at TVU as of January 18, after ICE shut down TVU following an investigation.

According to a federal complaint filed in a California court in January, the University helped foreign nationals illegally acquire immigration status. The university is said to have 1,555 students. As many as 95 per cent of these students are Indian nationals, the complaint said.