Applying for US student visa? F-1 visa rejections reach 10-year high, 41% of F-1 applications denied last fiscal

According to a State Department analysis of statistics released by The Indian Express, the United States received 6.79 lakh applications for F-1 visas, a category of non-immigrant student visas that let international students to study for a set amount of time in the nation’s educational institutions. In contrast to F-1 visas, M-1 visas permit students to undertake non-academic and vocational programs. In 2023–2024, the United States rejected 2.79 (41%) of the 6.79 applications.

This is more than the 2.53 lakh applications, or 36% of the 6.99 lakh total, that were rejected in 2022–2023.

While the US State Department did not provide the country-by-country F-1 visa rejection rate, the daily had previously stated that the acceptance rate had decreased by 38 percent in the first nine months of 2024 as compared to the same time the year before.

Also Read: US immigration attorneys issue travel risk warning for Indian H-1B, F-1 Visa and Green Card holders

US sees surge in student visa denials

In the last 10 years, the data says, the number of applications from all over the world has decreased, but the rate of student visa denials has climbed.

Around 4.01 lakh visas were granted in 2023–2024, a decline from previous year’s 4.45 lakh.

Visa decisions are made on an individual basis in accordance with the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and other federal laws, a Department of State official told the Indian Express.

The State Department said it does not publish statistics with the necessary granularity, and this is why they cannot reveal country-specific F1 visa refusal rates.

The representative pointed out that the methodology utilized to calculate visa data got changed after 2019. While the previous method focused on workload actions, the new approach correctly reflected the final results of the visa application procedure within a designated reporting period.