The downturn affected all major categories for international students and exchange visitors, with F-1 visas, the primary category for academic degree programs, experiencing the steepest drop at 33.4%. J-1 exchange visas and M-1 vocational visas also fell by 9.9% and 6.7%, respectively, according to an analysis by the ICEF Monitor and Inside Higher Ed.

The drop-off was particularly severe among students from India, historically the second largest source of international students in the country. Visas issued to Indian nationals plummeted 56.6% in 2025, while China recorded a 28% decrease, and nations like Iran, Myanmar, and Venezuela saw approvals collapse by more than 70%.

Students walk outside the campus of DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., Oct. 2, 2025. Photo by Reuters

Visa approvals tracked closely with 2024 levels early in the year but plummeted starting in May when the U.S. temporarily paused student-visa interviews to implement expanded social-media screening protocols. Consequently, F-1 visa issuances fell roughly 36% between May and August compared to the same period a year prior.

While these figures reflect newly issued visas rather than total current enrollment, the downward trend signals looming financial and operational challenges for U.S. universities that rely heavily on international students for tuition revenue and STEM program staffing.

Experts warn that interview disruptions, higher refusal rates, and unpredictable immigration policies are actively damaging the country's global appeal, according to ICEF Monitor.

Rajika Bhandari, principal of an international education research firm, noted that while processing bottlenecks constrained the pipeline in 2025, the overarching uncertainty is fundamentally a demand problem.

In an email sent to Inside Higher Ed, she warned that students who perceive the U.S. as an unstable destination may simply choose competing countries with more predictable post-study pathways.

Studying in the U.S. has broadly become less appealing amid the Trump administration’s larger crackdown on immigration, a sentiment clearly reflected in early application metrics.

According to the Common Application platform, the number of first-year international students applying to U.S. universities for the 2025-26 admissions cycle fell by roughly 16,000 to 148,780.

The platform's end-of-season report indicated the downturn was global, highlighted by an 11% drop in applicants from Asia and a 17% decrease from Africa.