A national manhunt for 11 Egyptian students who went missing after landing at a New York airport is starting to yield results, with authorities arresting three yesterday after the students turned themselves in.

Officials at Montana State University, host of a cultural exchange program the students were expected to be involved in, said at least one student called the college from Minneapolis, where he was subsequently arrested. Federal authorities took Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed El-Dessouki, 21, into custody at about 11 a.m. on an administrative violation for breaching the terms of his student visa, authorities said.

School officials reported the students missing August 3 after they did not report in as expected on July 29. A spokeswoman for MSU, Cathy Conovan, said 17 students had enrolled in the month-long program with MSU and Mansura University. After all but one student missed a connecting flight in New York, only six arrived successfully in Montana. Initially, the program had been open to 20 students, but three never left Cairo because they did not receive visas, she said.

Of the group that left Egypt, federal authorities said 11 were last seen at JFK International Airport on July 29.

In addition to Mr. El-Dessouki, federal authorities yesterday also apprehended Mohamed Ragab Mohamed Abd Alla, 22, and Ebrahim Mabrouk Moustafa Abdou, 22, after the two materialized at a police station in Manville, N.J. Without identifying a reason for their disappearance, authorities dismissed speculation of foul play. “There is absolutely no indication these individuals have ties to terrorism or criminal activities,” a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Dean Boyd, said.

Police officials said the two arrested in Manville came to the stationhouse with friends they were staying with after becoming lost and broke in New York.

“They seemed a little dejected,” a Manville police officer, Lieutenant John Crater, said. He said local authorities did not interrogate the students, who walked into the stationhouse at about 2:20 p.m. He said the friends were trying to help the students travel to Montana when they learned the students were no longer enrolled at MSU and were being sought in a national investigation.

Federal authorities said yesterday the search for eight other students would continue. Once apprehended, the students could face deportation under immigration law, federal authorities indicated.

“Typically, if someone is in violation of their student visa status they would be placed into deportation proceedings and ultimately be removed from the country,” Mr. Boyd said. The students technically became violators when they failed to report to the school in Montana per the terms of their visas, he said.