Student visa denials in US reach decade-high

Out of 679,000 F-1 visa applications, 279,000 were denied, up from 253,000 rejections in the previous fiscal year (2022-2023), when 36% of applications were turned down.

This increase in rejections has raised the denial rate to its highest level since the 2014 fiscal year. The number of F-1 visa denials in 2023-2024 is nearly double the level seen in 2014, according to an analysis of the State Department's data by The Indian Express.

The number of F-1 visa applications peaked at 856,000 in 2014-15, but has steadily declined in subsequent years, dropping to 162,000 in the 2019-2020 Covid-19 year. After the pandemic, the number of applications gradually increased, though in 2023-24, there was a 3% decrease from 699,000 applications in 2022-23, bringing the total to 679,000.

The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa granted to students wishing to live in the U.S. temporarily to study at an accredited school, college, or seminary. F-1 visas make up over 90% of all student visas issued by the U.S. annually, while the M-1 visa is intended for students pursuing vocational or non-academic programs.

Although the F-1 visa offers broad eligibility, it comes with specific requirements. A key condition is that applicants must intend to study temporarily in the U.S.

When asked about the rise in F-1 visa rejections, a Department of State spokesperson told The Indian Express that there had been a "change in methodology" for calculating visa data since the 2019 fiscal year.

"Our previous methodology was based on a count of workload actions, which were not linked by application. The new methodology more accurately reflects final outcomes from the visa application process during a specified reporting period. The new methodology follows visa applications, including updates to their status (i.e., issued or refused), which could change as the fiscal year progresses, or result in slight changes in data for earlier years. Therefore, beginning with FY 2020, individual monthly issuance reports should not be aggregated, as this will not provide an accurate issuance total for the fiscal year to date," the spokesperson said.

The 2023-2024 academic year saw over 1.1 million international students from 200 countries and territories studying in the U.S., marking the highest number ever recorded, according to the Institute of International Education. These students contributed approximately $50 billion to the U.S. economy, and the number of new international student entrants reached over 298,000, reflecting a 6.6% increase from the previous year.

More than 331,602 students from India were studying in the United States during the academic year, making them the largest group of international students in the country, followed by China with around 277,400, according to Statista.

Vietnamese students made up 22,066 of this total, ranking as the sixth-largest international student community in the U.S.