US student visa rejection rate zooms to 10-year high, Indians to be hit: Report
US state department data showed 2.79 lakhs or 41% of 6.79 lakh F-1 visa applications were rejected in 2023-24; Indians believed to be widely hit, says report
The United States F-1 student visa rejections have touched a 10-year high of 41 per cent in the 2023-24 fiscal year (October-September) across all countries.
This is almost double the number from a decade ago.
An analysis of the state department data showed that 2.79 lakhs or 41 per cent of the 6.79 lakh F-1 visa applications were rejected in the 2023-24 fiscal, said an Indian Express report.
This is an increase from 2022-23 when 2.53 lakh applications (36 per cent) of 6.99 lakhs were rejected.
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Indian students hit
While the data did not give a breakup of countries affected, Indian students are believed to be widely hit.
In December last year, the number of student visas issued to Indians in the first nine months of 2024 had decreased by 38 per cent, as compared to the corresponding period in 2023, the report added.
According to the data, the percentage of student visa denials increased even as the absolute number of applications from across all countries dipped over the last decade.
Rising applications
The total applications totalled a whopping 8.56 lakhs in 2014-15 but saw a steady dip in the next few years till it hit a low of 1.62 lakhs in the Covid year of 2019-20.
A total of 4.01 lakh F-1 visas were issued in 2023-24, down from 4.45 lakh the previous year.
Also read: US H-1B visa registration for 2026 ends on March 24
What’s F-1 visa?
The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant category for students attending academic institutions in the United States while the M-1 visa covers vocational and non-academic programmes.
Annually, F-1 visas account for more than 90 per cent of US student visas.
Asked what explains the rise in F-1 visa rejections, the IE report quoted a state department spokesperson as saying that all visa adjudications are adjudicated on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and applicable federal regulations.
Indian students in US
Further, according to the report, 64,008 student visas were issued to Indians from January to September in 2024, down from 1.03 lakh in the corresponding period in 2023.
Indian students constitute a significant proportion of the international student cohort in the US. There were 3.31 lakh Indian students in the US in 2023-24, the highest figure for the Indian cohort so far, according to the Open Doors data.
The increase in F-1 rejections comes at a time when some other countries have sought to limit the number of international students.