The US State Department data reflects a sharp 38% drop in F-1 Visas granted to Indian Students in the first 9 months of 2024, as compared to the grants made last year in the same period.
An analysis conducted by the Indian Express of monthly F-1 Visa reports available on the Bureau of Consular Affairs’s website exhibit that the number of non-immigrant visas being issued to Indian Students has taken a steep fall, and has hit its lowest, post-pandemic.
The Decline
64,008 visas were issued from January to September 2024- which is a significant decline from 2023’s 1,03,495. But to Indian Students this decline is not unique, as in 2021 65,235 F-1 visas were approved, 93,181 in 2022, and the lowest recorded was in the pandemic-hit year, 2020, where just 6,646 non-immigrant visas were issued.
Chinese students also faced a similar decline, but much steeper. Chinese students, who have now become the second largest international student population in the US, experienced a drop in non-immigrant visa issuances, though to a relatively lesser extent at 8% in 2024. 73,781 visas were issued to Chinese students this year, less than 80,603 of last year, yet higher than 2022’s 52,034.
Image Credits: The Indian Express
The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant category for students attending academic institutions in the US. While the M-1 visa is a category which consists of vocational and non-academic programs.
According to the latest Open Door Report, India has now surpassed Chinese students to become the largest international cohort in US institutions. The report demonstrates that there are approximately 3,31,000 Indian Students (29.4% of the 1.1 Million international students in the US) as compared to the presence of Chinese Students, which is about 2,77,000 (24.6%of the 1.1 million international students in the US).
Probable Causes
Though defined and concrete factors for this decline remain unclear, here are some of our speculations as to why this is the state of issuance: Background checks due to the rising concerns of fraudulent applications by the US Consulate and since the post-pandemic recovery, there has been a surge in applications, creating a significant processing backlog, especially with application from high-demand regions like India.
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