​Pivot away: On U.S. student visas, Trump administration

Fresh appointments for U.S. student visa interviews have commenced at consulates as per the extended vetting programme that includes rigorous checking of the applicant’s social media activities. A chunk of visa applications is still pending at a time when the visa processing winds down and students prepare to depart. Fresh appointments were frozen for nearly a month until the extended vetting programme could be launched. With a wait time of more than a month, many visa applications may go down to the wire as classes begin by the end of August/beginning of September. The extended vetting is only one among many disruptors to the flow of Indian students to the U.S. Many other policy proposals have had a chilling effect. The Trump administration’s nominee to head the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has vowed to end the Optional Practical Training programme (OPT) that allows students time to work in the U.S. after graduation while still on student visa, and which serves as a segue toward jobs, work visas and green cards. Ending OPT will disincentivise studying in America. The Trump administration has also said that it will provide only fixed-tenure student visas. The axing of government spending and funding of research and other activities of higher education institutions has had its impact — there are reports of universities rescinding PhD admissions of Indian students. Anecdotal evidence points to a sharp decline in visa issuance in several cities and increased scrutiny of the ranking of institutions granting admissions. Many of the applicants this year had begun the application process before the 2024 U.S. presidential election and, therefore, have sought to go through the process despite the fears. Next year will truly gauge how attractive the U.S. still is for Indian students.

When the Trump administration took office, it was felt that the worst of its anti-immigrant impulses would be softened by the tech billionaires who were supporting it. In the past, too, big business had driven policies bringing in talented immigrant workers and foreign students in Republican administrations. The exit of Elon Musk, however, is not a singular event but part of a trend of top techies exiting the Trump team. The cuts on green energy research in the recently passed “Big Beautiful Bill” only serve to highlight the almost complete dominance of right-wing extremists in the administration, marked by the extreme views of its leading lights such as Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. The decline of the U.S. as a major attraction for Indian talent is perhaps only an indicator of how much India may have to pivot away from the U.S. in other areas as well.