A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order allowing a Marshall University graduate student to remain in the country.
More than 1,000 international students across the country have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since March. Most revocations were because the visa holder’s name was found in a criminal records check.
According to the order entered Wednesday night by Judge Robert C. Chambers in the United States District Court for the Southern District Of West Virginia, the plaintiff Shival Vyas disclosed that he had a previous misdemeanor conviction in the United States when applying for his F-1 visa and “was subjected to additional scrutiny before he was allowed to enter the United States.”
Chambers wrote that the government’s revocation of Vyas’s visa violated due process under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law.”
“Government agencies are generally required to follow their own regulations,” Chambers wrote.
Vyas is weeks away from completing his degree program at Marshall University. The order cites “a loss of academic progress in the absence of immediate relief” as another justification for granting the temporary restraining order.
The federal government now has until tomorrow, April 25 at noon to comply with the court order, which includes the restoration of Vyas’s F-1 visa. A preliminary injunction hearing has been scheduled on May 7, 2025 in Huntington.
Vyas is the only international student at Marshall to have their visa revoked. Earlier this month, West Virginia University confirmed that six students and three alumni had their student visas revoked.