The Notice, published on November 9, 2015, provides that a student is eligible under the Notice if he or she is a citizen of Nepal, was lawfully present in the United States in F-1 status on April 25, 2015 and was enrolled in a SEVIS certified school and maintaining F-1 status, and is experiencing severe economic need arising out of the direct effects of the earthquake.  Eligibility means that the student can register for a reduced case load per semester and engage in employment on or off campus and still be engaged in a full course of study for the purpose of maintaining F-1 status.  USCIS estimates that there are more than 9,300 Nepalese students to whom this Notice can apply.  The benefits provided under the Notice end on December 24, 2016.

Eligible Nepalese F-1 undergraduate students must register for 6 semester hours per semester and eligible Nepalese graduate students must register for 3 hours per semester.  The Notice also provides that both undergraduate and graduate students can count the equivalent of 1 course or 3 credit hours of online or distance learning to satisfy the reduced required per semester course load.

Eligible Nepalese F-1 students can engage in on-campus employment for more than 20 hours per week.  Eligible Nepalese F-1 students can engage in off-campus employment without having been in F-1 status for 1 full academic year, nor demonstrating that accepting employment will not interfere with carrying a full course of study, nor with a limitation of working more than 20 hours per week off campus while school is in session.

The school’s DSO makes the determination whether a Nepalese F-1 student has demonstrated severe economic need to enter authorization for these benefits in the Nepalese student’s SEVIS record.  The Notice does not provide employment authorization for the spouses of covered F-1 Nepalese students.

As background, foreign students are admitted to the United States as nonimmigrants for the purpose of pursuing their studies at United States educational institutions. Students pursuing higher education are admitted in F-1 status and students pursuing vocational studies are admitted in M-1 status.

The Department of State has an Exchange Visitor program, which is multi-faceted and provides opportunities for nonimmigrant foreign nationals in diverse areas through programs for university students, professors and researchers, physicians, short term scholars, teachers and many others. Exchange visitor program participants are admitted to the United States in J-1 status.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) maintains information about all F-1, M-1 and J-1 nonimmigrants in the United States and the report draws its data from SEVIS.

The following are highlights of the report:

• There are presently 1.05 million students in the United States in F-1 or M-1 nonimmigrant status.
• There are presently 244,766 exchange visitors in the U.S. in J-1 status.
• More than 300,000 F and M students in the United States are from China.
• More than 150,000 F and M students in the United States are from India.
• SEVP has certified 8,887 United States schools to have international students enrolled.
• 77% of all schools certified by SEVP have 50 or less F and M students.
• 74% of F and M students are in doctoral, master’s or bachelor’s programs.
• The fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) account for 405,314 F and M students.
• 38% of all F and M students in the United States are studying in STEM fields.
• Engineering, computer sciences and biological and biomedical science programs account for 75% of all F and M STEM students.
• In Texas, 24% of F and M students are from India and 17% are from China.
• The number of active J-1 exchange visitors increased 21.9% from February 2015 to July 2015, from 200,779 J-1s to 244,766.
• The number of F and M students decreased 6.9% in the same time period, from 1,132,636 to 1,054,505.