Home » US Immigration - Visas » News: US CBP Deports 14 Students, Many stuck in India – What’s the reality?

News: US CBP Deports 14 Students, Many stuck in India – What’s the reality?

Updated : January 3, 2016 

About 14 students left Hyderabad, India to America few days ago on their journey to pursue their higher education dreams in US…after a long flight, they were interrogated for over 14 hours at the port of entry in US…and finally deported to India…the only thing that is common for all these students is that they were part of two universities, which are Silicon Valley University, San Jose, CA and Northwestern Polytechnic University, Fremont, CA.. It is all over the news in prominent Indian newspapers and TV channels. Apparently, everyone has a different perspective, University says something, students say something else, and airline says something else…Below is a quick summary of the info and our analysis from various sources for you to judge what the reality is? Also, we are posting updates as we hear more. check below for the latest news.

Updated News Summary:

  • Jan 3, 2016: Another 30 Students Deported from SF, LA, Seattle. Also, some handcuffed and barred entry to US for future.
  • Dec 29, 2015 :  It is speculated that FBI has given info that students are abusing the system to work and not study. More strict measure.
  •  Dec 25, 2015 : Total of over 130 students have been sent back from US, including students from good schools.

Detail summary and links to official news article are captured as part of a dedicated page for this news.

 Check out the page that tracks all the Latest news of Indian Students Deportations

Summary of the News on Why Deported and Why Not being boarded by Air India

  • Deported Students Perspective: As many as 14 students were deported to India and the students deported said in their interview to news channels that they were questioned for over 14 hours and asked many questions…they were given only 3 hr sleeping time, no food nothing…they were questioned regarding documents and said that their degrees from JNTU were fake and that they were put in spot to accept some things…besides, Air India is asking students to pay money for return flight tickets as well after being deported, students are upset that Air India is not helping the overall situation.
  • Air India Perspective: Air India says that they have received news from their US counter parts that these two universities, Silicon Valley University (SVU) and Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU) are black listed and do NOT send them to US as some of the students, who already arrived in US are being deported. Their logic is that, it will cost them more money for students and some are already on their way home, so just refund the tickets fully and do not send anyone until further notice.
  • Current Students at NPU and SVU: The current students at the universities NPU and SVU claim that everything is fine there and their classes are going on well, the media is just showing wrong information about schools, students and telling false information that the universities are black listed. They are saying that students, who were deported could not even answer basic questions about schools and had no idea on financial documents, so they were deported
  • Universities’ Perspective: Both the Universities NPU and SVU claim that their universities are not black listed and they are fully accredited school and they are doing well.  They have even placed big notice on their home pages indicating that the schools are fully compliant and not blacklisted.

What’s the Reality – Here is a quick check of Facts

If you read the above perspectives, each of them have their own say and some are completely contradictory…Let’s look at the facts.

  • Why were the students deported?  What’s the reason – Visa Revoked

Firstly, as you can see, below is the exact image from one of the deported student’s visa page, captured from TV news clip. What it clearly tells is that their visa was revoked under 22 CFR 41.122 (e) 3.  As per the law, it falls under the “Revocation of visa by immigration officer”, where the immigration officer can cancel the visa by writing revoked on top of the visa and the e(3) parts signifies that it is falls under the “ final order of deportation or removal or voluntary departure”. Students Deported Silicon Valley University NPU

Also, the second part is that the officer would write on back of the passport indicating the reason for deporting, we could not get that part clearly, this was shown on news, I have my own doubts as the date is wrong…anyways, it could be very likely 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), which means that the officer feels that they are potential immVisa Rejected Deported USA - SVU NPU Hyderabad igrants and do not have proper documents backing their claims, etc.  Usually they are given I-867A forms with the incident details. Another source tells that that they did not answer questions properly when asked about school and themselves in inspection and they seem potential immigrants.

 

What’s the Universities’ Status : As per our initial research, we could find that the schools are SEVP certified to issue I-20s for F1 Visa, you may check  SVU SEVP  and  NPU SEVP  and there was no federal raid like in Tri Valley State University Case that impact 1,555 Students in 2011 . The universities as of today do not seem to be blacklisted by any agency publicly.  The universities authorities have posted publicly on their websites that the students should carry all the documents and be prepared for extra screening with the recent Paris attacks.   The Universities say that the students could NOT answer basic questions at interrogation and that’s why they were deported as per the discretion of the CBP officer. Also, as per latest Times of India article published today Indians flock US Education Warehouses , there are about 1,500 to 3000 students in SVU and at least 70% Indians, the campus is pretty much like a warehouse and very shady, despite the valid credentials it has on paper…something to think about…

Why did Air India say that they are Black listed?  Well, our guess is that there was some speculation and miscommunication here by Air India’s internal operations. As many of those deported took Air India and most of them were from NPU and SVU, I guess they made speculation themselves internally not to carry students from those schools until they have clarity. This message was not communicated well and the black listed word came out due to miscommunication.

Current Students Updates : The current students are very happy and they are doing just fine. Quite a few videos were created by them to clarify to press and many about the current state.  Check out the Video Clip by Current Students at NPU and SVU

What are the actual questions asked by CBP  ? 

Below are snapshots of about 4 pages that were leaked to public domain by current students/ school/ press. It is very clear the level of answers that one has given…they have no idea on the fees, living cost, what is even a credit hour and how much does it cost for that…it is sad to see such answers from a student trying to pursue MS in US. It is important to be prepared well, even if you worked with an agency for admission.

F1 Port of Entry Questions - Deported- Set 1

F1 Port of Entry Questions - Deported - Set 2

 

F1 Port of Entry Questions - Deported- Set 3

 

F1 Port of Entry Questions - Deported- Set 4

What’s the summary?

Overall, based on our high level research on schools and their status, the universities did not had any public raid like Tri Valley University and they seem to be SEVP compliant for F1 visa. All the confusion was because of the Air India’s miscommunication between their teams…Also, there is no official information on any of the US Gov. Websites indicating that they are black listed.  It seems to us that the students at the Port of Entry could not convince the CBP inspector with their answers and that’s why they were deported, the above snapshots clearly indicate that, at least one of the students, could not even answer basic questions and it does not help the situation…  In fact, this is a pretty standard process at port of entry and does not get much attention as the percentage of students or any others getting deported are fractional…with Air India and the large pool of students that were deported, this came to lime light.  It is very unfortunate that students could not answer properly at the CBP secondary inspection…We recommend you be prepared well to answer questions at Port of entry.

What can you do to avoid issues at Port of entry ?

As a student you should be familiar with your school, your program, your fee, many other basic things regarding your education in US. Many of the students work with Visa Consulting agencies and have less knowledge about their schools and the program, etc.  Make sure you spend time to learn about your program, school and other info so that you can answer at Port of Entry.  Usually, it is pretty straightforward, but if you are taken to secondary inspection, then is when it gets tricky…so be prepared. As an example, here is a H1B Port of Entry experience…Unlike for H1B,  for F1 students, it will be completely focused on your school, about you and your program…

Would love to hear from you all.  If you are a current student or any one in such situation, add your thoughts or write to us at redbus2us@gmail.com .

What are your thoughts ?

References :

 

   

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40 Comments

  1. hey actually i have flight to Kansas at pittsburg state university
    so my path is via Dubai , Seattle and Kansas (where my university is). so my immigration will be done in Seattle and later i will land in Kansas on 1 Am but i have flight to Maryland in early morning 8 am so is border officer gonna find out that i have plan to visit my relative by data of flight booking because i have booked my Kansas to Maryland domestic flight by my relative’s card? are they gonna ask me question regarding this booking. and what i can answer if they ask question regarding this booking.

    Reply
    • arthur,
      you are thinking way too much, don’t worry about it. I highly doubt if CBP will have info on who booked your ticket. In all reality, it does not matter for CBP officer. All they care is your intention to come to US and verify your eligibility…so, take it easy…Don’t get into panic mode.

      Reply
  2. Hello!

    I was issued F1 Student visa of the USA in 2015 and my visa is valid until 2020(According to date mention on my visa).Sir, I could not travel due to domestic issue of my family and could not join my classes in the USA.Now I want to continue my study. My same (on whose behalf I was issued visa ) University in the USA is ready to issue me new admission.But my point is

    1. Is my visa is still valid? or I should go for a new visa?

    2.Can I travel on the same visa which was issued on 2015 and valid until 2020?

    3.What kind of situation can I face at immigration on the airport? Either USA Immigration officer at the USA Airport stop me or give me permission for entry as a student in the USA.

    I am very much worried about the situation at USA Airport due to my old valid visa.
    My Country of Resident is Pakistan and now I am in Pakistan.

    Regard

    Naveed

    Reply
  3. Most students from SVU and NPU are from ONE state. They’re everywhere, 7-11, Indian restaurants Grocery stores etc. I have seen the curriculum from these schools it’s an insult to call it MS program. Most (not all) do proxy interviews.

    Reply
  4. Warning to all Indian students who think they can come to US for a MS through NPU. Please read this article before you waste your money.
    https://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensleyclancy/inside-the-school-that-abolished-the-f-and-raked-in-the-cash?utm_term=.fmjnxnZPl#.niBrOrnyM

    Reply
  5. If Americans are so stupid, evil, uselss, etc, why are the Indians trying to come here in massive amounts to being among these shitty Americans? It doesn’t make sense.

    Reply
  6. H1B, B1, F1, L1, EB2, EB3, EB*, OPT and all these other immigration visas are full of unqualified, scamming Indians. Those coming over here on those visas are just as guilty as fraud as those facilitating them coming here to sit on the bench. Send them all back. We don’t want these overpopulating Indians destroying the USA.

    Reply
  7. No chance of Fake degrees from JNTU any more. US consulates are checking each and every single degree especially from JTNU in their online verification database updated to 2015. so be ware. or end up like the rest of those who were caught in US.

    As it is, already JNTU produces thousands of substandard engineers who don’t have basic technical and communication skills ( I am not talking of the 10 percent who do well on their own) as most JNTU colleges have faculty who themselves are undertrained with horrible skills. adding to that the fake JNTU racket. I think it is time something is done about JNTU. may be the number of colleges under JTNU should be reduced from 100s to below 10.

    Reply
  8. Dear Kumar
    All this is fine, but my only doubt is why is it that the CBP officers are not taking any action against the illegal immigrants from mexico/central/south america?
    Goto any 7-eleven or uhaul, you will always find atleast 20-30 such people anytime.
    Dont they know that these guys are illegal?
    Arent they not aware these guys will be available always in 7-11 or uhaul for any moving related help??
    Why are they only targeting Indians ???

    Reply
    • Gurumurthy Ramanathan,
      I believe, it is all about media coverage. There are so many deportations and denials that happen everyday…many of these have come to limelight with the media highlighting the same…if you just check news in border states of US, you will see many headlines that talk about crackdowns, deportations, etc…the coverage is probably in local news and does not get much attention unless it is really big…

      Reply
    • No one is targeting Indians, they are just doing their job! Why do you care whether they take any action on illegal immigrants or not? When it is our fault i.e. unable to answer questions properly then accept the outcome. Stop crying around!

      Reply
  9. This happens in h1b visa also. People provide fake documents to come to usa . They indulge in proxy interviews to get job etc . Lack of technical skills, but expect fat paychecks. Unprofessional behaviour in workplace . Mostly people from a particular state doing this and giving all indian communities a bad image.

    Reply
  10. Questions asked are legit. I have seen myself.. people coming here with no money expecting that their senior will help them. One person I interacted told me .. he entered the country with no money. He got help from his seniors etc.

    Officers look for their ability to support themselves or show proper funds and documents to support how they get supported. Basic theory is, if you don’t have financial means.. you are likely to commit offenses (criminal and financial).

    It is also true people (not all – but many ) has lost the purpose of education and think that this is a easy route to enter US. Please do not do that.

    Reply
  11. Are these supposed leaked paper genuine? There are some grammatical errors in the questions asked by the officers like saying “on your person” instead of “in your purse” or “on you “. Is there any Indian stupid enough to take only 4 dollars to a foreign country when the norm in India just for going out of town is a few thousand rupees!? A normal weekly grocery trip in India easily costs between few hundred to a few thousand rupees. I don’t know about other places but these estimates are 100 % accurate for Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai.

    Reply
  12. we need to aware latest updates happening . so be cautious with rules and regulations. when we are entering in to different place we need to know what they will ask at port of entry and prepare like visa interview.

    Reply
  13. It is interesting to see that all the deported students speaks same mother tongue and belong to ‘Two states’ in India. The people (not all) speaking that mother tongue are famous for forgery, fake documents, fake certifications, fake work experience, lies, fake degrees, even while applying in Indian IT companies. In US too these people (not all) are popular to create fake resume with 6-8-10 years of work ex and not surprisingly most of them speaks very bad english. Did you get that ‘hetchh’ ra?

    Reply
    • And gujaratis depend on asylum and abuse of child asylum and other illegal migration schemes. I am sure you are a scion of Ron hira the a..h… who believes only in illegal migration and always targets h1-b and f-1b from south india. he says illegal migrants only contribute to US economy as they clean toilets drive cabs and pick cotton. shameless gujjus and north indians. and do you konw, even Satya nadella studied at gulbarga which is worse than a fake JNTU degree. and faked 4 years experience 😉 (that is what gujjus think)

      Reply
  14. The worst part is that the student in question does not even know what subjects he/she has taken up. Seems to have been an over parented kid. I agree with @Amrutha.I dont agree with @ Karma Good. Not all students go with fake documents. There are many who go with true documents as well.

    Reply
    • Agree ‘Sincere maverick’ ! Not All students go with fake documents, it is only “certain percentage” of students that take shortcuts…

      Reply
  15. Is it possible some of these individuals sent another person to get a Visa at the consulate?. I find it hard for me understand how these individuals got Visa at the consulate.

    Reply
  16. Good question. You take home loan and then buy home or buy home and then apply for home loan ?

    For foreign education , you need money ( $$$ ). You can’t just go to USA with fake financial documents and earn illegally to support education.

    Financial support even asked if u go as visitor in most of the Western countries.

    Reply
  17. Guys stop the bullshit!
    All the students who are coming to usa most of them are coming with fake financial documents and fake loan documents and no money in hand to eat also. Why you guys doing like this! One student told Immigration officer that he wanted to work in grocery store or some gas station for his expenses OMG. Is he mad? He is no where in the world. he dont know the meaning of F1 visa at all. There are thousands of Universities in usa why people going to NPU & SVU is bcos of low fee. If you dont have money to pay for the tuition fee dont apply for USA. You dont study in engineering and u dont get proper gre TOEFL scores but you want to come to usa. Since last few years students coming to usa not to study just to do part time and pay the fee. most of the people showing no interest to study OMG.

    The way USA immigration verifying the documents is absolutely correct and i support them. One more thing i wanted to make it clear,students saying they interrogated for more than 15 hours etc etc.. Of course it takes time to inquire about you and your documents and your degrees etc.. They should wait till morning in India to find out the information, nothing wrong waiting for 15 hours.

    The people that got deported from USA are i) they didnt answer the questions properly ii) they dont have proper genuine documents iii) he/she argued with Officers iv) Dont have minimum knowldge about the university credits fee etc.

    Message for the students who cleared the Immigration and went to the college(SVU/NPU):
    No need to feel relax, actual thing starts after your MS.
    If you do any illegal thing in usa while studying you dont get work permit(OPT) after your MS and i have seen many cases since last 5 years in usa.

    Reply
  18. Thanks for the nice words Amrutha! Appreciate it. Glad to hear you have been reading the blog for years. Hope to see you more active with comments 🙂

    Reply
  19. This is ridiculous. Even a dumb student who is going to spend lakhs of rupees in foreign country will do more research and answer more appropriately than this example. CBP officer do not take each and every traveler for secondary evaluation. They select based pre-arrival scrutiny, response in primary or sometimes random selection. CBP officer can not reject somebody randomly or without any reason in secondary. They need to gather significant evidence to either approve or reject the traveler. The interviews are generally extensive. In above case it was for 13 pages. By looking at these answer any general person will have doubt on intention of arrival. As very basic questions are answered incorrectly, insufficiently or inappropriately, their deport was very much on the table.

    Reply
  20. Firstly RP, pursuing higher education like MS in a foreign country is not a Right of anybody…be it a middle class person or a millionaire. It’s a privilege, which should be availed by people who really deserve it. Secondly, a person who couldn’t answer some basic questions like how much a credit hour costs them and how much the tuition fee per semester has no business being in this country, it is simply the individuals duty to do their research and be prepared to answer questions raised by authorities.

    The answers provided by this particular individual clearly shows that they have done no research about the school whatsoever, and are totally ignorant about the policies of the CBP and port of entry. Would anyone answer in a similar fashion and expect to receive a visa at a visa interview? I don’t think so, so why would one provide such vague answers to an officer at the port of entry? People need to be aware of the fact that a CBP officer has as much authority to turn down an individual from entering the country as a Visa officer issuing a visa for them. THE QUESTIONAIRE AT PORT OF ENTRY IS NOT A FORMALITY, PERIOD.

    Finally, it’s not a mistake to dream about pursuing higher education in a foreign country. But at the same time, it is the responsibility of such individual to be educated and aware about the process around it.

    Reply
      • Thank you Kumar, kudos to you and your team for doing such great work by writing these articles to educate people. I am a very long time follower of this blog and this particular article and comments made by the previous poster compelled me to write the comment at for the first time in many years.

        Reply
    • Dear Amrutha thanks to you about whole information, but now i cant really understand that how this student are got the visa approved in us consulate and they are facing us visa interview when they doesnt know the basic knowledge tuition fees and somesthing and all that student does wrong it credit goes to all

      Reply
  21. THERE IS NO RIGHT TO STUDY IN U.S FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES BY GETTING LOANS!? BECAUSE, THEY ASKING FINANCIAL PROOF AT THE PORT OF ENTRY IN U.S.A.

    Reply
    • The comment you did was wrong sir. You cant say it like that. The way you communicate was wrong. Education is not only for the rich and every parents dream is to get their children educated. The problem is that these people who got deported is due to lack of proper answering and lack of proper preperation. They were not deported that because they were from middle class. The officer does not ask whether you are form a rich family or poor he just asks for paper work and random questions. May be you were un able to deliver what you wanted to. A F1 student must know a minimum about his visa status and work permits. If he dont know that he will be deported though he is the son of a billinear.

      Reply
    • Greetings to Rammohan Sir,
      First of all I have a question for you….. Have you done your MS in US? Why don’t you go back to India after completing your education in US? And one more thing you have to know before you are speaking here is every student coming on F-1 visa has the same desire and dreams about their future that you have before when the time you are pursuing your education here. We should not blame every one and at the same time I am not supporting the students who were sent back to India from the port of entry, it was their inability to answer the questions to CBP officers. What I want to say is do not misjudged everyone without knowing actual facts. I apologize if any one felt bad for my words.

      Reply

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