Indian Student Visas To US Halve In ‘25
According to data from the US department of state (DoS), only 6,984 F-1 student visas were issued to Indians in May 2025, nearly half the 11,829 issued in May 2024.
Hyderabad: The number of Indians travelling to the United States for education and employment has fallen sharply since Donald Trump returned as US President in December 2024, with student and work visas showing a major decline compared to last year.
According to data from the US department of state (DoS), only 6,984 F-1 student visas were issued to Indians in May 2025, nearly half the 11,829 issued in May 2024. In January 2025, 1,167 students received F-1 visas, less than half the 2,623 issued in January 2024.
The decline is also evident in other student visa categories. In May 2025, 1,114 J-1 visas — issued to exchange students for work-and-study programmes—were granted, down from 1,651 in May 2024. Similarly, only 51 M-1 visas for vocational or non-academic students were issued in May 2025, compared to 105 the previous year.
The number of visas in April of 2025 saw a sudden increase with 2,525 visas compared to the same month in 2024 with 1,009 visas, which coincides with the summer intake months for the US. Despite the surge, the overall numbers for the summer intake, which falls in both April and May months, is still showing a downward trend with 9,509 visas in 2025 and 12,838 visas in 2024.