Vietnamese ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc (Photo: VOV)

The US Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently announced that the US Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will US Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the US. This decision dismayed many international students, including thousands of Vietnamese students.

Vietnamese ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc said, "The embassy and Vietnamese representative agencies in the US have been working hard to repatriate Vietnamese citizens stranded in the US by travel restrictions. We have proposed increasing the frequency of Vietnam Airlines flights to bring our citizens back home, and conducting codeshare flights with foreign airlines to repatriate citizens. As the government has allowed the resumption of flights to Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei and Guangzhou on a temporary basis, our citizens can return home through those transit locations.”