More than 11 percent of all F-1 visa issued last was to Indians.
By Jayshal Sood
The United States may be deporting Indian students enrolled in dubious universities in record numbers, but the country is also issuing student visas to Indians in unprecedented numbers.
Last year, the United States issued roughly 18,700 more F-1 visas to Indian students than it granted in 2014.
According to the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, 77,375 F-1 visas were issued to Indian students—out of 677,928 such visas issued worldwide. In other words, more than 1 in 10 (11.41 percent) foreign students who came to study in the United States last year came from India.
In 2014, Indian nationals received 9.85 percent of all F-1 visas that were issued by the U.S. worldwide.
The number of increased visas issued in India assumes greater significance in the context of a U.S. crackdown on a number of universities for visa fraud and other illegal activities in recent years.
As The American Bazaar reported earlier this week, 21 brokers, recruiters and employers, most or all of them of Indian Americans and Chinese Americans, were arrested from across the country on charges of conspiring with more than 1,000 foreign nationals to fraudulently maintain student visas and obtain foreign worker visas through a “pay to stay” in a New Jersey college.
More than 300 F-1 visa students from India will be deported for enrolling in the “fake” University of Northern New Jersey.
Several students were deported last year as well, creating an uproar among students and India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
In fact, questions were also raised in Indian Parliament on the fate of Indian students planning to study in the United States. On March 9, 2016 the Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs Gen. V.K. Singh told Parliament that there was no downturn in F-1 visas issued in India since 2012.
This should be a big relief for aspiring students who want to pursue higher education in the US. It can be safely deduced that the US government is not hostile toward Indian students.