Students eyeing Europe, Dubai amid rise in US visa rejections: Pune educational consultants

According to an analysis of US State Department data published by The Indian Express on March 24, 41 per cent of F-1 student visa applications in the US fiscal year 2023-2024 were rejected. This rate of rejection was almost half in 2014. Paired with US President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant sentiment, students have grown sceptical of moving to the United States for studies.

“When Trump was elected the last time as well, we saw an increase in rejection rates for F-1 student visas and B-1 visas as well. Students are a little worried and concerned about their future in the US. So they are definitely looking at other countries,” Suhas Kaul, Managing Partner at TransGlobe Education Pune, said.

“In technology subjects, the US is a big market so a lot of engineering graduates would prefer going to the US. But right now they are switching to countries like say Ireland and Australia, and a few to Dubai as well,” Kaul added.

Kaul also said that Dubai’s disadvantage was that it did not have its own institutions but secondary campuses of many Western universities. “But because of employment opportunities in Dubai, a lot of students are considering Dubai as a viable option,” he explained.

Hiren Rathod, Director (USA/Canada/Europe) at Imperial Overseas Education, however, had a different view. He said that students from the Pune-Mumbai region were more concerned about the weakening job market worldwide than about visa rejections. “People are looking at other markers like Europe mainly because of the lack of jobs in the US. We have seen 25 per cent of students shifting from the US to Europe compared to last year. Only 1/4th of these students are concerned about the administration change, the majority are concerned about the job market,” Rathod said.

The pinch is being felt by tourist visa travellers as well. “We process 1,000+ tourist visa applications every year. Around 10 per cent used to get rejected every month but after Trump, the number has increased to 20-30 per cent. If earlier one out of 10 people would be rejected, now sometimes 10 out of 10 are rejected,” Sandeep Aher of Ideal Visa, a visa consultant in Pune, said.