The ministry worked with the US Embassy in Vietnam on the issue on Wednesday. At the meeting, a representative from the embassy said that the US side would provide up-to-date information about the pandemic for Vietnamese students in the country and will co-operate with Vietnam to ensure the best conditions for the students.
If students have to return to Vietnam for online study, they need to register their repatriation with the Vietnamese Embassy in the US.
The Ministry of Education and Training will co-operate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Steering Committee on Covid-19 Prevention and Control to support the students. The ministry will also propose conducting flights to transport Vietnamese students to come back home.
On Monday, the US Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division reported that "The US Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programmes that are fully online for the fall semester nor will US Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the US."
Students with F-1 visa (international students who are attending an academic programme) and M-1 visa (international students attending vocational schools and technical schools) are under the new rule.
Nguyen Dung Nhan, a Vietnamese student from Valparaiso University, said that he and his friends are calling on others to sign a petition to be sent to the White House, asking for the White House’s answer to what the ICE stated.
They hoped that the petition would attract 100,000 online signatures before August 5.
Besides learning in classrooms directly, his university is providing online courses, but Nhan is worried about the possibility of Covid-19 infection if he comes to school. He expects to return home and then learn online. If he can’t repatriate, he will hire an apartment to avoid the risk of infection.
Nhan added that he is not a US citizen, it would cost him a huge amount to take a Covid-19 test.
Thai Trung Hieu, a student from Wayne State University, said that his school only offers online study, so he wants to come back to Vietnam. He contacted the Vietnamese Embassy in the US for the repatriation, but he was replied to wait further as a long list of people had been registered.
Meanwhile, commercial flights between Vietnam and the US have not yet resumed, which is an additional difficulty for Vietnamese students to return home.
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