Telugu Students who have been found guilty in an immigration fraud in the United States and have been overstaying the country may be deported to India by the Department of Homeland Security very soon. Ever since the ‘Accrual of Unlawful Presence and F, J and M non-immigrants’ policy came into effect from August 9, 2018, students overstaying there will be deported after a grace period of 180 days granted by the Homeland Security department. Unfortunately, this period ends on February 5th, giving the students just 5 more days to pack up and leave.

“A maximum of 180 days will be given for overstaying candidates to leave the US. When that time ends on February 5, those students who do not have proper visa status will be sent back to their country and mostly, Telugus, will get affected with this,” a US education expert said.

The new policy says that “unlawful presence begins if F visa (student), J visa (for researcher scholars and professors and student exchange programme students) and M Visa (for vocational schools) holders continue to stay after completion of their study or programme, including any authorized training including the grace period.”

According to the statistics provided by the Department of Homeland Security for 2017, 1,662,369 candidates who got F, J and M non-immigrant status visas were expected to either change their visa status or leave the United States. Since this did not happen, the authorities have been tracking these students since 2017 and began their crackdown ahead of their deportation date.

Apart from this, the students also have been violating the Curricular Practical Training rule to work at the universities and have been out of the University campus, which is illegal in the US. This, according to US officials, could also attract detention or deportation. While this crackdown has exposed the fraud by several consultancies and students in Telugu states, US authorities are planning another crackdown on Universities where students are working outside the campus.