‘Anxiety and a flurry of queries’: Indians caught in limbo as US pauses student visas

Over the last few weeks, 28-year-old Raj Iyer and his family have been scrambling to figure out ways to fund his master’s programme at Columbia University in the United States.

Iyer, who used a pseudonym to avoid potential reprisals, received a partial scholarship but still needed to come up with nearly $110,000 to cover tuition and living expenses, for which his family took out a loan and used their savings.

Now Iyer fears it is all for nought. Less than three months before classes start, Iyer has been left stranded after the US government announced it is pausing student visa interviews.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month instructed embassies to stop scheduling new visa appointments, saying the Trump administration would review the process and expand vetting of students’ social media profiles.

Officials have not said when student interviews will resume, plunging the education of students from abroad into doubt, including those in India, the biggest contributor of international students to US schools of higher learning.

According to the US Embassy in India, more than 331,000 students went there in 2024.

Students hoping to attend university in the United States are now deleting their social media posts, writing emails to their universities and laying out hastily crafted backup plans.

Revoked visas

Even before the decision to pause student visas, the...

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