US student visas for Indians fall 61% last year, only 22,000 issued, colleges sound alarm
The number of international students coming to the United States fell much more sharply last year than people had realised, according to a new analysis of US Department of State data by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Between May and August 2025, an important period for university enrolments, the US issued 97,000 fewer F‑1 student visas worldwide. This was a 36 per cent drop compared to the same months in 2024.
A preliminary survey of colleges conducted last year had suggested a 17 per cent fall in new international-student enrolments. The new visa figures are far more worrying. India, the top source of international students for the United States, saw an especially big drop. American consulates there issued only about 22,000 student visas over the summer, a decline of more than 60 per cent.
The global drop in visas is likely linked to a nearly month-long freeze on student-visa interviews that the State Department imposed in late May. But it may also reflect falling interest in studying in the United States after policies from the Trump administration, including cancelling the legal status of thousands of foreign students last spring.
“Although many of those visa cancellations — which often appeared based on minor run-ins with the law, such as traffic violations — were reversed, they sparked alarmed headlines worldwide,” the analysis said. Other policy changes, such as a proposed time limit on student visas and reforms to a federal programme that lets recent graduates work in the US for up to three years, may have made students rethink their plans. Threatened cuts to research funding also led some colleges to reduce graduate admissions.
