The Department of Homeland Security has issued a change to its policy on foreign students and seasonal workers who overstay their visas.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services "is dedicated to our mission of ensuring the integrity of the immigration system. F [student], J [summer workers], and M [vocational-school student] nonimmigrants are admitted to the United States for a specific purpose, and when that purpose has ended, we expect them to depart, or to obtain another, lawful immigration status," according to the agency's director, L. Francis Cissna.
"The message is clear: These nonimmigrants cannot overstay their periods of admission or violate the terms of admission and stay illegally in the U.S. anymore."
Under the previous policy, "foreign students and exchange visitors… started accruing unlawful presence on the day after USCIS formally found a nonimmigrant status violation while adjudicating a request for another immigration benefit or on the day after an immigration judge ordered the applicant excluded, deported, or removed (whether or not the decision is appealed), whichever came first."
The new policy, which would take effect on Aug. 9, would start the clock on a foreign student or worker as soon as their visa expires, whether or not this is noticed by USCIS. Those under the age of 18 do not accrue unlawful presence.
"Individuals who have accrued more than 180 days of unlawful presence during a single stay, and then depart, may be subject to three-year or 10-year bars to admission, depending on how much unlawful presence they accrued before they departed the United States.
"Individuals who have accrued a total period of more than one year of unlawful presence, whether in a single stay or during multiple stays in the United States, and who then reenter or attempt to reenter the United States without being admitted or paroled are permanently inadmissible."
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