The number of F-1 visas issued to Indian students by the United States Department of State fell by 38% in the first nine months of 2024, as compared to the corresponding period in 2023, reported The Indian Express on Monday citing data from monthly non-immigrant visa reports available on the US Bureau of Consular Affairs’ website.
An F-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows students from other countries to study in the United States.
Between January and September this year, 64,008 such visas were issued to Indians, as compared to 1,03,495 visas issued between the same months in 2023, The Indian Express reported.
In 2022, the number of F-1 visas issued to Indians stood at 93,181 between January and September, while in 2021 it stood at 65,235. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, only 6,646 F-1 visas were issued to Indians in the first nine months of the year.
Apart from India, students from China, who are the second largest cohort of overseas students in the United States, were issued 8% fewer F-1 visas in 2024.
This came even as Indians surpassed China to become the largest cohort of overseas students in American universities in the US financial year 2023-’24, which ended on September 30.
India surpassed China in new student visa issuances for the first time during the US financial year 2022-’23, The Indian Express reported citing an Open Doors 2024 report.
As per the report, there were 3,31,000 Indian students in the United States during the 2023-’24 academic year, compared to 2,77,000 Chinese students in the same period.
Responding to a query on the decline in the issuance of F-1 visas, a spokesperson from the US Department of State told The Indian Express that “individual monthly issuance reports do not necessarily provide accurate issuance totals for the fiscal year to date”.
Citing an unidentified official, the newspaper also reported that 20,000 student visa appointment slots for Indians during the peak application season of May, June, and July went unused this year.
The Department of State spokesperson also said that they had dedicated “significant resources to improving wait times in India” and was committed to getting their staff “the tools, resources and support they need to bring appointment wait times down”, according to The Indian Express.
“Wait times do not mean that people are not being issued visas,” the spokesperson said. “They simply reflect the extremely high level of demand for a US visa.”
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