New Delhi (Written by Abhinaya Harigovind)F-1 visa denials surge to 10-year high, US rejects 41% of foreign student applicantsThe F-1 visa is a non-immigrant category for students attending academic institutions in the US, while the M-1 visa covers vocational and non-academic programmes.
Student visa denials by the United States (US) soared to a decade-high last fiscal year (October 2023 to September 2024) with 41% of F-1 visa applications from across all countries turned down — almost double the rejection rate of the 2014 fiscal year — shows an analysis of State Department data by The Indian Express.
In 2023-24, (the US government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30), the US received a total of 6.79 lakh applications for F-1 visas, of which 2.79 lakh (41%) were denied. This is an increase from 2022-23, when 2.53 lakh applications (36%) of a total of 6.99 lakh were turned down.
While the US State Department did not share data on the country-wise refusal rate for F-1 visas, The Indian Express had reported on December 9 last year that the number of student visas issued to Indians in the first nine months of 2024 had decreased by 38% as compared to the corresponding period in 2023.
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. During this period, the total number of applications peaked at 8.56 lakh in 2014-15, but saw a steady dip in the next few years, till it hit a low of 1.62 lakh in the Covid year of 2019-2020.
Post-Covid, while the number of applications steadily increased, there was a 3% decrease in 2023-24 — from 6.99 lakh in 2022-23 to 6.79 lakh in 2023-24. As a result, the absolute number of visa denials in the last fiscal year (2.79 lakh) represents the highest percentage in at least a decade. A total of 4.01 lakh F-1 visas were issued in 2023-24, down from 4.45 lakh the previous year.
F-1 visa denials surge to 10-year high, US rejects 41% of foreign student applicants
The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant category for students attending academic institutions in the US, while the M-1 visa covers vocational and non-academic programmes. The Indian Express analysis focussed on F-1 visas, which account for over 90 per cent of US student visas annually.
Asked what explains the rise in F-1 visa rejections, a Department of State spokesperson told The Indian Express: “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.”
The State Department did not share data on the country-wise refusal rate for F1 visas, and said they “do not publish data to the granularity requested”. The spokesperson also pointed to a “change in methodology” for calculating visa data from FY2019 onwards, and said the annual ‘Report of the Visa Office’ is to be referred to for final statistics for the 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.
Data on visa issuances and refusals are, however, available for the entire fiscal year, and not as monthly reports. The department did not offer any further clarification on this.
While country-wise break-up of F-1 visa rejection is not available, The Indian Express had reported last December that 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. The State Department website now says that the monthly reports from March-September were updated in December 2024. With this, the total for the nine months from Jan-Sept is a slightly lower figure of 63,973.
According to data, 65,235 visas were issued during the corresponding period in 2021, and 93,181 in 2022.
Indian students constitute a significant proportion of the international student cohort in the US. The Open Doors 2024 report showed that in 2023-24, the number of Indian students surpassed that of the Chinese, making Indians the largest international student cohort (29.4% of international students) 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. Canada, for instance, announced in 2024 that it would cap the number of study permits, meaning a decrease of 35% compared to 2023. It explained then that “increases in the number of international students puts pressure on housing, healthcare and other services.” It announced a further 10% decrease in study permits in 2025.
The UK, where Indians are the second largest source of international students, imposed restrictions on foreign students bringing dependents to the country in a bid to restrict their numbers. As a result, international student enrolment across British universities has fallen by up to 40%.(Source:Indian Express)