U.S. student visa numbers for Indians suffer a steep decline of 38% between January and September in 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, the U.S. Department of State reports. With the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration beginning in January 2025, will these numbers drop even further?
In 2024, the U.S. granted only 64,008 F-1 visas to Indian students from January to September, compared to the 103,495 in the same period of 2023. These numbers are the lowest since the post-pandemic surge of international students in the country.
Data shows that in 2021, 65,235 F-1 visas were issued to Indian students in the same time frame, while they rose to 93,181 in 2022. The steady increase in Indian student visas observed over three consecutive years following the 2020 global pandemic has come to a halt this year, breaking the upward trend.
In 2020, the year COVID-19 pandemic hit, only 6,646 student visas were issued to Indian students in the first nine months. The highly sought-after F-1 visa is typically granted to international students pursuing higher education in the U.S.
Will Trump tighten rules for student visas?
The 2023-2024 academic year showed a record high of 1.1 million international students that studied in the U.S., according to official reports by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In fact, international students contributed over $50 billion to the U.S. economy, supporting academic campuses and their surrounding communities.
This year, India claimed the top spot for sending the most students to the U.S. since 2009, surpassing China with a remarkable 35% increase. Although China saw a 4% decline, it still remains the second-largest source of international students, especially for undergraduates.
American universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and others have issued travel advisories to international students urging students and staff to return to the U.S. before Trump’s inauguration day on Jan. 20, 2025. The advisory follows discussions about mass deportations of undocumented immigrants under Trump 2.0.
Over 330,000 international students from India hold valid F-1 visas in the U.S., and any drastic immigration measure against them is unlikely. However, the undocumented students might face travel restrictions, following the pattern of travel bans issued by the Trump administration in 2016.