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Six of the 12 Harvard students and recent graduates whose student visas were revoked by the State Department have since had their visa status reverted back to active, according to the Harvard International Office.

The HIO announced the reinstatements via a frequently-asked-questions page launched last week and last updated Thursday. On Friday, the Department of Justice announced in federal court that they had restored thousands of student visas after several judges nationwide deemed the mass terminations illegal.

More than 1,800 international students and recent graduates from more than 280 universities have had their visa status changed, according to an Inside Higher Ed tracker. The American Immigration Lawyers Association estimates the number of terminated records for international students in federal databases could be at least as high as 4,700.

Some students have been targeted for their participation in pro-Palestine activism, while others faced revocations for minor infractions like traffic violations.

But the Trump administration has since restored student visa registrations for thousands of international students who had minor legal infractions. After more than a 100 lawsuits were filed over visa terminations from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, the Justice Department announced in court that no student will have their SEVIS record terminated solely as a result of criminal history checks until further notice.

The DOJ said that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is developing a new policy for international students studying on F-1 visas, one of the most common types of visas allowing international students to study at accredited U.S. institutions.

Harvard is not aware of the reasons for affiliates’ student visa revocations, according to the HIO. But the office’s FAQ page stated on Friday afternoon that the office had “been in communication” with the students and alumni whose visas were reactivated.

For weeks, Harvard has conducted daily checks on the SEVIS database to determine whether affiliates’ visa statuses were changed. According to University announcements, Harvard officials were not notified about the 12 revocations.

University spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this article.

The update comes five days before Harvard is due to respond to an April 16 letter from the Department of Homeland Security threatening to rescind Harvard’s ability to host international students if they do not share information about those student’s campus activities.

Harvard did not challenge the DHS letter in its Monday lawsuit against the Trump administration. And Harvard administrators — including College Dean Rakesh Khurana — have not said how the University will respond to the letter, indicating only that Harvard will “follow the law.”

Correction: April 25, 2025

A previous version of this article misquoted Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana. In fact, Khurana said on Tuesday that Harvard will “follow the law,” not “comply with the law.”

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.