Colleges advising international students and staff, return to U.S. before inauguration

Some colleges and universities, including the University of Massachusetts Amherst, have issued travel advisories for thousands of international students, researchers and staff.

They suggest if students and academics travel outside the U.S. during winter break, consider returning before Jan. 20, 2025, when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Within days of Trump taking office in 2017 he enacted an immigration order that ended up creating travel delays for international students and others returning to the U.S. using valid visas.

Knowing this, UMass Amherst’s Office of Global Affairs recently posted the holiday break travel advisory, recommending “that our UMass Amherst international community– including all international students, scholars, faculty and staff under UMass immigration sponsorship– strongly consider returning to the United States prior to the presidential inauguration day of January 20, 2025 if they are planning on traveling internationally during the winter holiday break.”

The advisory states that this is not a requirement or mandate from UMass “nor is it based on any current U.S. government policy or recommendation.”

In 2017, at least one UMass Amherst PhD student, Mohsen Hosseini, experienced delays returning from Iran.

Hosseini left the U.S. in December 2016, returning to Iran to get married. He had a return flight to Boston at the end of January 2017, along with a valid visa and other documentation.

On the day of his flight, under the new Trump administration, Hosseini was not allowed to board the plane.

Within days of becoming president, Trump had ordered a temporary ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.

Other schools have issued travel advisories, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which reminded students that U.S. federal transitions can impact staffing levels at American embassies and consulates abroad.

Boston University officials said they’re not speculating on whether a travel ban will be enacted by the Trump administration, but they are asking their international community to consider the risks.