Do not victimize India students: US told

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jan 29 (PTI) Strongly taking up the matterwith the State Department and other concerned departments, theIndian Embassy here has asked the US government to ensure thatno Indian students, affected by the immigration scam of TriValley University in California, are victimized.

According to a federal complaint filed in a Californiacourt last week, the University helped foreign nationalsillegally acquire immigration status.

The university is said to have 1,555 students.

As many as 95 percent of these students are Indiannationals, a federal complaint said.

The Indian Embassy here and its Consulate Generals inNew York and San Francisco have taken up the matter with theUS authorities.

According to information available here, only about140 visas were issues directly to Indian students for studyingat this university.

However, many students it seems had transferredthemselves to this university from other universities in theUS.

This increased the number of students registered atthis university.

The US authorities claim that this so calleduniversity was not conducting full time courses and registeredstudents were not doing full time studies this causingviolation of their visa status.

Indian authorities have pointed out that thisuniversity appears to have been authorized by the US system toissues I20 forms, and in any case US consulates in India hadissued visas for students to study here after their duescrutiny.

"Therefore the students should not be victimized inany way," Indian authorities here have argued.

The students who have been in touch with the Embassyand the Consulate General in San Francisco and New York haverequested that they be permitted to apply for transfer toother university and be given sufficient time for this.

Alternatively they may be permitted to go back toIndia, without prejudice, and not be deported and also beallowed in normal course to reapply for studies in the US atauthorized universities.

The Indian Embassy has strongly taken up this requestwith the US State Department and other authorities.

In the meantime, the US authorities have suggestedthat students with visas for studies at Tri Valley University,who are presently in India, should not travel to the US onthis visa.

It is expected that the response of US authorities tothe request from the students, supported by the IndianGovernment, could be available next week.