Washington: An association of the Telugu community in the US has appealed to lawmakers in the country to help the hundreds of Indian students affected by the immigration scam at a 'sham' California-based University.
The American Telugu Association, representing the large Telugu community in the US, sought to draw the attention of US lawmakers towards the plight of the students, most of whom are from Andhra Pradesh, at the Tri Valley University.
"It's unfortunate that Indian students in Tri-Valley are mistreated by immigration authorities who have become victims of recent 'scam' by Tri-Valley University," the American Telugu Association president Dr Rajender Jinna, and Bangar Reddy Aaloori, chair community service, wrote in a letter to US lawmakers.
"We respectfully request your help in bringing it to the attention of immigration authorities and favourably consider providing students with all viable options especially to continue their education by allowing them to study in another University within the US and help maintain their legal F-1 status in USA," the letter said.
According to a federal complaint filed in a California court last week, the University helped foreign nationals illegally acquire immigration status.
The university is said to have 1,555 students and as many as 95 per cent of these students are Indian nationals.
"The students are from the respectable families in India, never committed any crime and have high respect and dream to study in USA," the letter said.
According to information available here, only about 140 visas were issues directly to Indian students for studying at this university. However, many students it seems had transferred themselves to this university from other universities in the US.
This increased the number of students registered at this university.
Federal agencies here claim that this so called university was not conducting full time courses and registered students were not doing full time studies, causing violation of their visa status.
Indian authorities have pointed out that this university appears to have been authorised by the US system to issues I20 forms, and in any case US consulates in India had issued visas for students to study here after their due scrutiny. (PTI)
