The total number of new foreign students attending a U.S. college or university for the first time was still strong in 2023-24.

The US is still the favorite destination for foreign students to advance their careers. America's rate of student visa denials is increasing, new statistics show.

An examination of State Department statistics by The Indian Express reveals that in the last fiscal year (October 2023–September 2024), 41% of applications for international student visas were rejected, a decade high for US student visa rejections. That is almost twice the rejection rate for the 2014 fiscal year.

In 2023-24, the US received 6.79 lakh F-1 student visa applications in total, of which 2.79 lakh (41%) were rejected. This is higher than 2022-23, when 2.53 lakh applications (36%) of a total of 6.99 lakh were rejected.

While the US State Department did not release figures on the country-specific refusal rate, The Indian Express cited a 38% decline in student visas granted to Indians during the first nine months of 2024 as compared to the same period in 2023.

When asked to explain the increase in F-1 visa denials, a Department of State official said to 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."

For the first time since 2009, India had more students studying in the U.S. than China. A record 331,602 international students from India went to study in the United States during 2023-2024, a 23% increase from last year, as per the Open Doors Report.

India's enrollments rose chiefly at the graduate level, where 196,567 students were enrolled, an increase of 19%. For the Optional Practical Training (OPT) academic levels, 97,556 students were enrolled, an increase of 41%.

New international student enrollments for the first time at a U.S. college or university held firm at 298,705 in 2023/2024, similar to last year's and pre-pandemic numbers.

According to statistics made public by the Ministry of External Affairs, Canada is the host country with the highest number of Indian students at 427,000, followed by the United States (337,630), the United Kingdom (185,000), Australia (122,202), and Germany (42,997).

International students comprised 6% of the overall U.S. higher education student population and generated over $50 billion for the U.S. economy in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Yet another concerning fact was the overstay of students in America beyond the end of their visa duration. Immigration specialist Jessica M. Vaughan revealed that over 7,000 Indian students and exchange visitors overstayed their visas in the United States in 2023 in a recent hearing before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. The F and M visa types have the largest overstay percentage of any of the general categories of temporary admission. The Center for Immigration Studies' Vaughan called on Congress to consider serious revisions to the country's immigration laws, particularly the H-1B visa program.

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, although the number of applications gradually rose, there was a 3% fall in 2023-24 — 6.99 lakh in 2022-23 to 6.79 lakh in 2023-24. Consequently, the absolute figure for visa rejections in the previous fiscal year (2.79 lakh) is the largest percentage in over a decade. Overall 4.01 lakh F-1 visas were granted in 2023-24, which is lower than 4.45 lakh the previous fiscal year.

The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant student category for students pursuing academic programmes in the US, while the M-1 visa embraces vocational and non-academic programmes. The Indian Express analysis here was of F-1 visas, which are issued for more than 90 per cent of US student visas every year.

The State Department did not provide figures for the country-specific denial rate of F1 visas, and stated they "do not publish data to the granularity requested". The spokesperson also referred to a "methodological change" in measuring visa statistics from FY2019, and stated the yearly 'Report of the Visa Office' should be consulted for end-of-year statistics for the fiscal year.

"Prior to this, our approach was to count workload actions, and these were not tied by application. The revised approach better represents outcomes through the visa application process over a given reporting period. The revised approach traces out the progress of visa applications, such as their change in status (i.e., issued or refused), which may alter as the fiscal year continues, or cause minimal variations in data for previous years.". Thus, from FY 2020 onwards, separate monthly issuance reports must not be combined because it will not give an accurate issuance total for the year to date," the spokesperson explained.

Statistics on visa issuances and refusals are, nevertheless, available for the full fiscal year, but not as monthly reports. The department did not make any additional explanation on this.

Though country-wise split of F-1 visa denial is not available, The Indian Express had reported in December last that 64,008 student visas were granted to Indians between January and September in 2024, compared to 1.03 lakh during the same period in 2023. The State Department website now indicates that the monthly reports for March to September were revised in December 2024. With this, the nine-month total from January to September is a slightly lower number of 63,973.

As per statistics, 65,235 visas were given in the respective period of 2021, and 93,181 visas in 2022.

Indian students make up a high percentage of international students in the US. Open Doors 2024 reported that the number of Indians exceeded the Chinese in 2023-24, so Indians became the highest international student population (29.4% of international students) in the US. The Indian student population reached 3.31 lakh in 2023-24, the highest in the history of the Indian cohort, the Open Doors figures reveal.

The rise in F-1 rejections occurs as several other countries have tried to reduce the intake of international students. Canada, for example, revealed in 2024 that it would be limiting the number of study permits, which will be 35% less than in 2023. It clarified at that time that "increases in the number of international students puts pressure on housing, healthcare and other services." It revealed another 10% reduction in study permits in 2025.