The administration has announced that it is abandoning the plan announced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement only last week to prevent F-1 and M-1 international students from being deemed to be maintaining legal status in the US if their coursework was conducted entirely online – something planned by many institutions and we approach the new school year with little sign it will be safe to return to in-person learning.

In the wake of the announcement, the administration was suede by many universities and states over the policy, and the policy was heavily criticized.  After a string of recent defeats in court, yet another reversal of administration policy would certainly have proven embarrassing.  Most news outlets are reporting that the administration did not anticipate the degree of outrage caused by the policy.

We have seen some reports that the administration is considering re-implementing this only for new students who might come to the US, and excepting students already here.  We’ll update if this happens, but in the current environment such a rule would likely impact far fewer people.