In August 2018, the administration issued a policy change revising how and when F or M student visa or J exchange visa holders could be considered “unlawfully present,” making it more challenging, and sometimes impossible for years, for them to extend or change their visas or to gain permanent residency in the U.S.
In February 2020, a federal court issued a nationwide permanent injunction prohibiting the administration from applying the new policy. The administration then appealed.
On August 3, 2020, the appeals court dismissed the case after the administration decided to drop its appeal.
This is a tremendous victory for foreign students, definitively blocking this attempt by the administration to upend a decades-long policy on when these visa holders can be considered to be out of status and unlawfully present.
It is also a victory for employers who hope to employ foreign students upon completion of their undergraduate or graduate degrees, many of whom the policy change would have prevented from remaining and working in the U.S. for years.
You can read a more detailed explanation of the importance of this legal victory here.