NC State international students' visas restored after Trump reversal, university says
The visas of two international students at NC State University have been restored after the Trump administration initially revoked them earlier this month.
NC State spokesperson Mick Kulikowski confirmed to The News & Observer by email Tuesday that the students' records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, have been 'restored to active.'
The Trump administration throughout early April enacted sweeping terminations of immigration records for international students across the country. The actions impacted thousands of students, according to a count by Inside Higher Ed, including more than a dozen in North Carolina.
In addition to the two students at NC State, six students at UNC-Chapel Hill and six at UNC Charlotte also had their visas revoked. All of those students' records have been restored, according to reporting by The N&O and The Charlotte Observer. Two Duke University students and an alumnus were also impacted by the administration's terminations, according to the Duke Chronicle, but the outlet reported Friday that it is unclear whether their records have been restored.
The visa restorations in North Carolina and around the country come after the U.S. Department of Justice announced in federal court Friday morning that it planned to restore the statuses of the students who were impacted by those actions, as reported by Politico and other outlets.
International students are required to obtain visas to enroll and study at colleges around the United States. In addition to visas, international students are assigned records in the federal SEVIS database maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
If a student's visa is revoked, it does not automatically mean they must leave the country. But if a student's SEVIS record is terminated — as the NC State students' records initially were, according to the university — they could be subject to deportation or other removal proceedings.
The two NC State students who were impacted by the visa revocations left the country after consulting with their lawyers and the embassy in Saudi Arabia, the students' home country. NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson told The N&O that both students were in 'good standing' with the university.'
NC State's Office of International Services previously said the university did not initiate the terminations.
It remains possible that the Trump administration could target visas again. Inside Higher Ed reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would work to develop a framework for future terminations following the administration's reversal in court Friday.
'As this remains an evolving situation, we will continue to monitor and work with students on an individual basis as needed,' Kulikowski wrote. 'Over the past several weeks, the university has provided students with ongoing support, with the priority of helping them complete their studies.'
NC State enrolls the most international students of any school in the public UNC System and hosts the second-most international students of any university in the state, according to federal data. According to a 2024 report by the U.S. Department of State, the university enrolled more than 3,700 international students from more than 100 countries during the 2023-24 academic year, most of whom were graduate students.
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