In a significant court-aided settlement reached with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration (DHS) all 358 international students , many of whom are Indian, succeeded in having their SEVIS registration resorted retroactively. TOI in its edition of May 3, 2025, had reported on the mass action lawsuit that had been filed by these students pseudonymously.
The list of stipulations (requests) set down by these students were accepted by DHS and approved by the district court judge (Northern district of Georgia). The stipulation sought reinstatement of their SEVIS records to ‘active’ status, retroactive to the date of initial termination, effectively ensuring no gap in their immigration status. This retroactivity means ‘as though the termination did not happen’. F-2 dependents (such as spouse or dependent children) of the F-1 visa holder (aka, the international student) will also receive the same terms and conditions of the settlement.
A key concern for the international students was the impact of the termination on their Optional Practical Training (OPT), the two-year extended OPT which is available to international students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field or the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorizations. The settlement sought that any end dates for these training programs be reset to their original end dates contained in their SEVIS records prior to termination. Crucially, the settlement ensured that unemployed days accumulated by some plaintiffs due to the SEVIS termination would be removed from their records. This was a vital point – to illustrate: there is a limit of 90 days of unemployment during the one year OPT post completion of studies. If this period is exceeded the students F-1 visa status is in peril.
Furthermore, the plaintiffs sought assurance that ICE would not re-terminate their SEVIS records based solely on the National Crime and Information Center (NCIC) record that led to the initial termination. As has been reported by TOI earlier, SEVIS records of several students were terminated based on innocuous charges such as traffic or parking violations.
The settlement also addressed potential negative impacts on future immigration applications – the settlement ensured that the termination and revocation of SEVIS records will not, by itself, have any negative impact.
A group of law firms: Bless Litigation, Joseph and Hall, Kuck Baxter and Siskind Susser under the umbrella IMMPACT Litigation were representing the students. Charles Kuck, immigration attorney told TOI, “This settlement gives us more than we believe we could have obtained from a federal court judge’s order and are grateful to restore our 358 plaintiffs to their proper F-1 status, without interruption. We look forward to moving against Department of State in a separate legation to restore the unlawfully revoked visas to the international students.”
The list of stipulations (requests) set down by these students were accepted by DHS and approved by the district court judge (Northern district of Georgia). The stipulation sought reinstatement of their SEVIS records to ‘active’ status, retroactive to the date of initial termination, effectively ensuring no gap in their immigration status. This retroactivity means ‘as though the termination did not happen’. F-2 dependents (such as spouse or dependent children) of the F-1 visa holder (aka, the international student) will also receive the same terms and conditions of the settlement.
A key concern for the international students was the impact of the termination on their Optional Practical Training (OPT), the two-year extended OPT which is available to international students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field or the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorizations. The settlement sought that any end dates for these training programs be reset to their original end dates contained in their SEVIS records prior to termination. Crucially, the settlement ensured that unemployed days accumulated by some plaintiffs due to the SEVIS termination would be removed from their records. This was a vital point – to illustrate: there is a limit of 90 days of unemployment during the one year OPT post completion of studies. If this period is exceeded the students F-1 visa status is in peril.
Furthermore, the plaintiffs sought assurance that ICE would not re-terminate their SEVIS records based solely on the National Crime and Information Center (NCIC) record that led to the initial termination. As has been reported by TOI earlier, SEVIS records of several students were terminated based on innocuous charges such as traffic or parking violations.
The settlement also addressed potential negative impacts on future immigration applications – the settlement ensured that the termination and revocation of SEVIS records will not, by itself, have any negative impact.
A group of law firms: Bless Litigation, Joseph and Hall, Kuck Baxter and Siskind Susser under the umbrella IMMPACT Litigation were representing the students. Charles Kuck, immigration attorney told TOI, “This settlement gives us more than we believe we could have obtained from a federal court judge’s order and are grateful to restore our 358 plaintiffs to their proper F-1 status, without interruption. We look forward to moving against Department of State in a separate legation to restore the unlawfully revoked visas to the international students.”
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