It was a typical Thursday night for the financial analyst, who was watching “Lord of the Rings” when he got the email with the subject line “visa revoked.” At first, the University of Illinois Chicago grad from India thought it was a joke — just a scam email from some Indian website trying to mess with him.

But then he received a second email after he tried logging into his Student and Exchange Visitor Program portal. “Your OPT authorization period has ended,” the email read.

At that moment, his entire life paused. The former student, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, graduated from UIC in 2023 and was continuing to work in the U.S. on a STEM optional practical training extension. He previously worked at Bank of America and was being considered for a role at J.P. Morgan.

Now, he has to focus on self-deporting, selling off items like his TV and giving away other belongings to his friends. He plans on leaving the country April 13 and is unsure whether he’ll even be able to work for J.P. Morgan.

“I would choose to stay and fight but on Reddit I’ve been hearing different stories about ICE detaining students,” the former student said.

He is one of hundreds of international students nationwide who have had their visas terminated in the past few weeks.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a student one month away from graduating seemingly had her visa revoked for a previous traffic violation. In Florida, a student from Colombia was taken into custody by immigration agents after he was stopped by Gainesville police with an expired registration and driver’s license.

In Illinois alone, dozens of students have had their visas revoked, with seven confirmed cases from the University of Chicago and eight confirmed cases from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. A high-ranking official at U. of I. who did not have permission to speak on the record told the Tribune that 19 students had their visas rescinded, according to data in the SEVIS system, an online system used to monitor the records of international students on F-1 or J-1 visas.