Employment Authorization for Certain Lebanese F-1 Nonimmigrant Students Experiencing Severe Economic Hardship as a Direct Result of the Current Humanitarian Crisis in Lebanon

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. ICEB-2024-0009]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1653-ZA53</RIN> <SUBJECT>Employment Authorization for Certain Lebanese F-1 Nonimmigrant Students Experiencing Severe Economic Hardship as a Direct Result of the Current Humanitarian Crisis in Lebanon</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Department of Homeland Security. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suspending certain regulatory requirements for certain Lebanese F-1 nonimmigrant students who are experiencing severe economic hardship as a direct result of the current humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. The Secretary is providing relief to these students who are in lawful F-1 nonimmigrant status, so the students may request employment authorization, work an increased number of hours while school is in session, and reduce their course load while continuing to maintain their F-1 nonimmigrant status. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This action covers eligible Lebanese F-1 nonimmigrant students beginning on July 26, 2024, and ending on January 25, 2026. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Sharon Snyder, Unit Chief, Policy and Response Unit, Student and Exchange Visitor Program, MS 5600, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 500 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20536-5600; email: <E T="03">sevp@ice.dhs.gov,</E> telephone: (703) 603-3400. This is not a toll-free number. Program information can be found at <E T="03">https://www.ice.gov/sevis/.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">What action is DHS taking under this notice?</HD> The Secretary is exercising the authority under 8 CFR 214.2(f)(9) to temporarily suspend the applicability of certain requirements governing on-campus and off-campus employment for F-1 nonimmigrant students whose country of citizenship is Lebanon regardless of country of birth (or individuals having no nationality who last habitually resided in Lebanon), who were present in the United States in lawful F-1 nonimmigrant student status on July 26, 2024, and who are experiencing severe economic hardship as a direct result of the current humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. Effective with this publication, suspension of the employment limitations is available through January 25, 2026, for those who were in lawful F-1 nonimmigrant status on July 26, 2024. DHS will deem an F-1 nonimmigrant student granted employment authorization through this notice to be engaged in a “full course of study” for the duration of the employment authorization, if the student satisfies the minimum course load set forth in this notice. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> <E T="03">See</E> 8 CFR 214.2(f)(6)(i)(F). <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Because the suspension of requirements under this notice applies throughout an academic term during which the suspension is in effect, DHS considers an F-1 nonimmigrant student who engages in a reduced course load or employment (or both) after this notice is effective to be engaging in a “full course of study,” <E T="03">see</E> 8 CFR 214.2(f)(6), and eligible for employment authorization, through the end of any academic term for which such student is matriculated as of January 25, 2026, provided the student satisfies the minimum course load requirements in this notice. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Who is covered by this notice?</HD> This notice applies exclusively to F-1 nonimmigrant students who meet all of the following conditions: (1) Are a citizen of Lebanon regardless of country of birth (or an individual having no nationality who last habitually resided in Lebanon); (2) Were lawfully present in the United States on July 26, 2024, in F-1 nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(F)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(F)(i); (3) Are enrolled in an academic institution that is Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP)-certified for enrollment for F-1 nonimmigrant students; (4) Are currently maintaining F-1 nonimmigrant status; and (5) Are experiencing severe economic hardship as a direct result of the current humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. This notice applies to F-1 nonimmigrant students in an approved private school in kindergarten through grade 12, public school grades 9 through 12, and undergraduate and graduate education. An F-1 nonimmigrant student covered by this notice who transfers to another SEVP-certified academic institution remains eligible for the relief provided by means of this notice. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Why is DHS taking this action?</HD> DHS is taking action to provide relief to certain Lebanese F-1 nonimmigrant students experiencing severe economic hardship due to emergent circumstances presented by the current humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. <E T="03">See</E> 8 CFR 214.2(f)(5)(v), (9)(i), and (9)(ii). Humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon have significantly deteriorated due to recent escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 90,350 people had become newly displaced since September 19, 2024, following the latest military escalation. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> By September 30, 2024, IOM had tracked the number of displaced individuals to 346,209. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> UNHCR reports that it has been approached by over 8,500 refugees who have fled their homes and displaced internally in Lebanon during the week prior to October 1, 2024, with the most urgent needs being access to safe shelters, core relief items, healthcare, food, cash assistance, and protection services. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Citing to the deterioration of humanitarian conditions, on July 26, 2024, President Joseph Biden issued a memorandum, directing the Secretary to defer for 18 months the removal of certain Lebanese nationals present in the United States by implementing Deferred Enforced Departure for those eligible individuals. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  “Over 90,000 People Displaced by Latest Military Escalation in Lebanon—IOM Scales Up Its Response,” International Organization for Migration (IOM), Sept. 25, 2024, available at <E T="03">https://www.iom.int/news/over-90000-people-displaced-latest-military-escalation-lebanon-iom-scales-its-response</E> (last visited Oct. 4, 2024). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Lebanon—Mobility Snapshot—Round 49—30-09-2024, IOM, Sept. 30, 2024, available at <E T="03">https://dtm.iom.int/reports/lebanon-mobility-snapshot-round-49-30-09-2024?close=true</E> (last visited Oct. 4, 2024). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  “Lebanon Emergency: Flash Update 1 October 2024,” UNHCR, Oct. 1, 2024, available at <E T="03">https://reporting.unhcr.org/lebanon-emergency-flash-update-2</E> (last visited Oct. 4, 2024). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  Memorandum on the Deferred Enforced Departure for Certain Lebanese Nationals, The White House, July 26, 2024, available at <E T="03">https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/07/26/memorandum-on-the-deferred-enforced-departure-for-certain-lebanese-nationals/</E> (last visited July 26, 2024). </FTNT> As of July 26, 2024, approximately 1,740 F-1 nonimmigrant students from Lebanon are enrolled at SEVP-certified academic institutions in the United States. Given the extent of the current humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, affected students whose primary means of financial support comes from Lebanon may need to be exempt from the normal student employment requirements to continue their studies in the United States. The current crisis has made it unfeasible for many students to safely return to Lebanon for the foreseeable future. Without employment authorization, these students may lack the means to meet basic living expenses. <HD SOURCE="HD1">What is the minimum course load requirement to maintain valid F-1 nonimmigrant status under this notice?</HD> Undergraduate F-1 nonimmigrant students who receive on-campus or off-campus employment authorization under this notice must remain registered for a minimum of six semester or quarter hours of instruction per academic term. Undergraduate F-1 nonimmigrant students enrolled in a term of different duration must register for at least one half of the credit hours normally required under a “full course of study.” <E T="03">See</E> 8 CFR 214.2(f)(6)(i)(B) and (F). A graduate-level F-1 nonimmigrant student who receives on-campus or off-campus employment authorization under this notice must remain registered for a minimum of three semester or quarter hours of instruction per academic term. <E T="03">See</E> 8 CFR 214.2(f)(5)(v). Nothing in this notice affects the applicability of other minimum course load requirements set by the academic institution. In addition, an F-1 nonimmigrant student (either undergraduate or graduate) granted on-campus or off-campus employment authorization under this notice may count up to the equivalent of one class or three credits per session, term, semester, trimester, or quarter of online or distance education toward satisfying this minimum course load requirement, unless their course of study is in an English language study program. <E T="03">See</E> 8 CFR 214.2(f)(6)(i)(G). An F-1 nonimmigrant student attending an approved private school in kindergarten through grade 12 or public school in grades 9 through 12 must maintain “class attendance for not less than the minimum number of hours a week prescribed by the school for normal progress toward graduation,” as required under 8 CFR 214.2(f)(6)(i)(E). Nothing in this notice affects the applicability of federal and state labor laws limiting the employment of minors. <HD SOURCE="HD1"> ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 36k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━