Student‑visa denials climb
Newsweek reports the global adjusted refusal rate for F‑1 student visas reached about 35%, and a secondary source puts rejections even higher, citing stricter vetting. (newsweek.com) The coverage highlights particularly high refusal rates for applicants from parts of Africa. (newsweek.com) (visaverge.com)
U.S. denials of F-1 student visas climbed to 35 percent in 2025, the highest global refusal rate recorded in the past decade. (insidehighered.com) The 35 percent figure comes from Shorelight’s 2025 analysis of State Department data, and it was up from 31 percent in 2024. Inside Higher Ed reported the increase on April 10, 2026, calling it a decade high. (insidehighered.com) The increase was not spread evenly. African applicants faced a 64 percent refusal rate in 2025, and applicants from Somalia and Sierra Leone topped 90 percent, according to the same analysis. (insidehighered.com) This comes as U.S. colleges were still enrolling large numbers of international students. The Institute of International Education said a record 1.1 million international students studied in the United States in the 2023-24 academic year, up 7 percent from the year before. (studyinthestates.dhs.gov) By the 2024-25 academic year, total international enrollment still rose 4.5 percent, but the next year’s early snapshot pointed the other way. The American Council on Education said overall international enrollment was down 1 percent in 2025-26, driven by a 17 percent drop in new enrollments and a 12 percent decline in graduate students. (acenet.edu) Colleges tied much of that slowdown to the visa system. In the same American Council on Education summary, 96 percent of surveyed institutions cited visa delays and denials as the main reason for declines in new international enrollments. (acenet.edu) The disparities have been building for years, not just this cycle. A July 2024 update from the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration said students from Africa and other parts of the Global South continued to face disproportionately high F-1 denial rates. (presidentsalliance.org) The State Department’s public visa statistics page shows that refusal and issuance data are tracked by visa category and nationality, but it does not explain individual case decisions on that summary page. Shorelight said its analysis was based on State Department data, while institutions and advocacy groups argue the pattern is shutting out qualified students before they reach campus. (travel.state.gov)
