International Students face Visa Hurdles as Trump Administration Tightens restrictions
In May, the Trump administration announced a worldwide suspension of U.S. student visa interviews. The impact of this nearly monthlong suspension,coupled with a significant slowdown of the visa approval process,continues to be felt sharply in countries such as India and China,which send the largest number of international students to American universities.
After paying nonrefundable deposits to their universities and securing finances to be able to afford their programs, several students have been unable to find a visa interview slot.
A student admitted to a prestigious graduate program at a top U.S. university said they haven’t been able to find a single visa appointment in their home country, India. The euphoria of receiving an acceptance letter from the university has been replaced by the frustration of missing out on the chance to pursue their studies.
“It’s a very tough time to be an international student as none of the roads seem to be leading anywhere,” they told The Intercept.
Another Indian student who was set to begin a graduate program in journalism at a leading U.S.university in mid-august told The Intercept that, after two-and-a-half months of daily searches for interview slots, they had finally given up.
“I would be on the website which showed interview slots for a cumulative six to eight hours every day, sometimes even longer,” they said. In recent days, the prospective student’s family members also took turns in checking the site every day – to no avail.
“It’s a very tough time to be an international student because none of the roads seem to be leading anywhere.”
The crush for interview slots has created incredibly tight deadlines for would-be students. On one occasion, the would-be journalism student missed a fresh round of interview slots by a whisker: In early July, they sat down to have lunch and saw a message on one of the many WhatsApp and Telegram visa-related groups they were on saying that new interview slots had opened up.
“I stopped my lunch the minute I saw the update,” they said. “It had been one or two minutes sence the message.”
Within seconds, they were on the portal, but the slots were already gone.
The crackdown on international student visas is of a piece with the trump administration’s attacks on universities – part of the right-wing assault on perceived liberal redoubts.
Along with revoking federal grant funding and launching investigations against several universities,the Trump administration also threatened to make it more difficult for them to take in international students. International students often pay full tuition and can therefore serve as valuable revenue streams for higher educational institutions across the country. As part of its war on Harvard, as an example, the Trump administration made explicit mention of the revenue garnered for the school by foreign students.
The administration…
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