The Donald Trump administration’s decision to tighten the rules concerning the duration of stay for non-immigrant visas, especially those granted to students, will oversimplify the issue and affect honest candidates, whose sole wish was to pursue higher studies in the United States.
According to the old visa rules, the holders of F visas (students) were allowed to stay in the United States until their purpose of visit was completed or the duration of status (DoS). This, the Trump administration alleged, allows foreign students to abuse the immigration system by perpetually enrolling in courses to avoid leaving the US.
Under the proposed system, the stay of students will be capped at four years. If they need additional time to complete an academic programme, they must apply for an extension of stay.
According to a study conducted in 2025, there were 3,63,019 Indian students enrolled at US colleges. Indians form the largest foreign student community in the United States and represent 31 per cent of the 1.2 million international students pursuing higher education in the country.
The number of Indian students in the United States is a small percentage of six million students who pursue postgraduation in India. It is true that every society will have some people who try to game the system, but an attempt to paint all foreign students as black sheep is unfortunate. The visa rules are also consistent with the Trump administration’s preference for making policies based on perception, rather than data.
Foreign students are the major source of income for hundreds of US colleges and they effectively subsidise the education of American students. The new rule, therefore, will affect the US colleges the most and increase the cost of education, while the foreign students look for other alternatives.
The Narendra Modi government must fast-track its attempt to get prestigious universities to set up their campuses in India and ensure that Indians do not have to leave their homeland for higher studies.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
