The long road to justice for TVU and UNVA students: What the experts say

New Jersey, September 20: The crux of the problem confronting the students of both the California-based Tri-Valley University (TVU) and University of Northern Virginia is an incorrect understanding of the legalities of student visas, according to immigration experts and lawyers.

'Most of the students who want to come to the US for higher studies tend to take the easy way out by seeking the services of educational consultants in their home States. It is an open secret that most of these consultants are in an unholy nexus with institutions like Tri-Valley which are into student-shopping.

These consultants present a rosy picture of the institutions and whitewash over their illegality. Since students at this stage are not mostly aware of the legal provisions of what constitutes CPT (Curricular Practical Training) and OPT (Optional Practical Training), they get into a mess,' says Purushottam Raju, a New Jersey-based immigration consultant.

Even among the TVU and UNVA students, the cases differ vastly. While TVU has been ordered to shut down because of the illegality of its CPT/OPT programs, UNVA ran into trouble because of the disproportionate number of I-20s it was issuing.

'When we enrolled for the course, we were told by the university representative that we would be allowed to take online classes only if we wanted and we could take up work during our study period if we wanted to. However, nothing was given in writing,' says Shantini P. (name changed), a TVU student who has since returned to hometown Vishakapatnam.

'My understanding of the issue is that most of these students were mislead on the CPT issue and did not do their homework properly. When India's Minister for External Affairs, S.M.Krishna, came to New York, we made a representation to him asking that the Indian government have sufficient information about foreign universities that are attempting to lure Indian students,' says Mahesh Bigala, PR Committee chair of the North American Telugu Association (NATA) which has been actively lobbying with Washington to help the affected students.

In a letter sent to the US President on behalf of NATA and the TVU students, immigration attorney Rajiv Khanna points out that as late as September 30, 2010, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) had been informing students by way of email responses that TVU was a legitimate accredited institution.

'Due to TVU's unexpected closure, most of the students have been left out of lawful immigration status and worse, they have lost out both academically and financially for no fault of their own,: Mr.Khanna writes and makes the following recommendations for helping out innocent students:

1 Immigration and Customs Enforcement should stop confiscating students' passports and return confiscated passports except in cases where well-founded allegations of fraud are made.

2) ICE must implement a policy change to allow students sufficient time to change status after the unexpected closure of their school.

3) The Department of Homeland Security must develop and provide clear guidelines for students who find themselves out of status and provide viable options to convert status.

4) Clear guidance must be given to US Consulates in India on how to interpret the impact of a school closure and assess visa re-issuance.

5) The DHS must implement a centralized policy to provide clear guidelines for ICE agents and remove requirements of students having to post an immigration bond to be released from ICE custody or being radio-tagged. Money being held towards such bonds must be returned.

Whether the authorities will pay heed to any of the recommendations and take a lenient view of student misfortunes at both TVU and UNVA still remains to be seen.

Next in series: What students can do to safeguard against visa scams