Indian students of Northern Virginia meet Embassy officials

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Nearly 70 Indian students of University of Northern Virginia on Friday met Indian Embassy officials here and sought help in continuing their studies in the United States.

Authorities in the US last week raided offices of the university's Annandale campus on charges of fraud, where 90 per cent of the 2,400 students are from India. The students and their representatives explained some of their concerns particularly related to the time, money and energy that many of them had already spent at the university.

These students wanted to see if some arrangement can be made that the years that have already spent at the University of Northern Virginia were not lost.

During the meeting, the Embassy officials explained to the students in detail what they had been told by US authorities especially that the investigation is against the university and not the students, secondly the university is not being completely closed and finally visa status of the students was being maintained and those who wanted would have the opportunity to transfer to other universities.

The embassy would be taking up the proposals of students with the US authorities to see how the interest of the students could be protected. Based in a suburb of Washington, the University of Northern Virginia has been issued notice by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement of their intent to withdraw the license to admit foreign students.

In a raid at the university campus last week, federal officials including the FBI and ICE took away with them all the records of the university related to foreign students.

The meeting at the premises of the Indian Embassy in Washington was held as part of the Indian Government efforts to minimise the hardship the of students at University of Northern Virginia.

Earlier in January, US authorities had raided and shut down Tri-Valley University in California on charges of massive immigration fraud, affecting over 1,500 Indian students.