In a recent development, during the first month of the second Donald Trump administration, the number of student visas issued to Indians by the U.S. dropped by 30% February 2025.
1,000 International Students’ Visas Revoked Without Any Prior Notice
These numbers are compared to the same month the previous year.
This holds a significance as this decline is notably higher than the overall 4.75% decrease in student visas which was granted by the U.S. to all the countries combined.
This simply means that the drop in student visas issued to Indians was much sharper than the decline in visas issued to countries like Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese students.
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the decline in the number of visas issued to Indian students was the highest among the top source countries by a significant margin
During February 2025, the US has reported a sharp 30% year-on-year (YoY) drop in the issuance of student visas to Indians.
This was a huge change as the drop in student visas affected over 1,000 international students across the US as they had their visas terminated or revoked without prior notice.
Moreover, this situation has impacted over 1,100 students across 170 colleges nationwide.
In response to this, most of the affected students have since sued such terminations, including Indian nationals like Manikanta Pasula and Chinmay Deore.
On the other hand, the Indian government has shifted its stance from asking students to “follow the law” to extending them support by directly reaching out.
It appears that the officials of the External Affairs Ministry are now pushing the affected students to take legal action.
Indian students Facing Longest Wait For Getting US Visas
So far, Delhi has the longest wait time for US student visas compared to other countries, as per the data.
It seems that Indian students (including exchange visitors) wait 58 days for a US visa on an average.
If we compare this with other countries, for instance, the wait time is just 15 days for Tokyo or those in Hanoi and for Beijing, it has an average wait time of just two days.
Here, we can not deny that the recent dip in student visas and its disproportionate impact on Indian students is mainly connected to Trump’s aggressive policies.
This is not the first time that our country is facing difficulties encountered by international students.
The similar event happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the country witnessed a sharp decline in applications for international student programs, leading to a surge in applications post-pandemic and a subsequent increase in rejections.
The data indicates that over half a million students were denied visas in 2023 and 2024.
