Thousands of prospective international students who had been admitted to U.S. colleges and universities are unable to arrive this fall because of President Donald Trump’s travel restrictions and a summer slowdown in visa processing, students and university officials said.
Some applicants have had interviews delayed or canceled, others have been unable to obtain new visas because their home countries are subject to the administration’s travel bans, and many have reconsidered coming to the United States amid a wider crackdown on immigration and abrupt changes to legal status, according to student accounts and university reports.
The restrictions apply to citizens of 19 countries who faced new vetting rules this year, and a separate travel ban blocks most new visas for citizens of 12 nations spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean, the administration has said. The State Department issued more than 5,700 F-1 and J-1 visas — types commonly used by foreign students and researchers — to people in the 19 affected countries between May and September last year, with citizens of Iran and Myanmar receiving more than half of those approvals.
Students from those and other affected countries described crushed plans and difficult choices. Bahara Saghari, a 21-year-old from Afghanistan who had practiced English for years and won an offer to study business administration at a private liberal arts college in Illinois, said she planned to arrive this fall but canceled a visa interview after learning of the travel ban. Knox College denied her request to defer admission, she said. Attempts to shift to universities in Europe ran into other hurdles: a German school required a new English proficiency test because a prior score had expired and a Polish university demanded up-front tuition while it validated her high school credentials.
“I was all in for U.S., so this kind of breaks my heart,” said another student from Myanmar who goes by the nickname Gu Gu and said a travel ban announcement ruined his plans to attend the University of South Florida. He said his family had saved paychecks for him to go abroad and that, with a civil war raging at home after Myanmar’s 2021 coup, he had been looking forward to simple freedoms like walking to school by himself.
Seventeen-year-old Pouya Karami of Shiraz, Iran, said he focused his college search entirely on the United States because of its research opportunities in science. He had planned to study polymer chemistry at Pittsburg State University in Kansas but deferred admission until next year after the travel restrictions kept him from traveling. Karami said he continued preparing for an embassy interview and has sought help from U.S. politicians to reconsider restrictions on students.
Other prospective visitors and visiting scholars said they lost funded opportunities. Amir, a 28-year-old researcher in Tehran who declined to give his last name, was unable to travel to the University of Pennsylvania as a visiting scholar and has continued work at home while his Penn appointment was postponed until next year.
Administration officials have defended the measures as necessary for national security and to address what President Trump called “deficient” screening processes in some countries. When he announced the travel ban in June, he cited high visa overstay rates and the need to ensure adequate vetting. The administration said some nationals are exempt — including lawful permanent residents, dual citizens and some athletes — but for most people the bans block the issuance of new visas.
In addition to outright bans, U.S. consulates and embassies slowed visa processing this summer while implementing additional vetting procedures, creating logjams for students awaiting interviews and approvals. University officials said delays and uncertainty have prompted some admitted students to defer enrollment, enroll remotely where offered, or accept offers in other countries.
The restrictions come as universities and research institutions have sought to recruit international students and scholars who often pay full tuition, contribute to campus diversity and strengthen research programs. Advocates for international education and some university leaders have warned that prolonged restrictions could hurt U.S. campuses’ academic programs and research collaborations, though measurable long-term effects may take time to appear.
Students and scholars coping with canceled or postponed plans said they are pursuing alternatives, including deferring admission, applying to institutions in Europe or elsewhere, or waiting for policy changes. Several said they felt demoralized after years of preparation, testing and expense.
“You think that finally you are going to your dream, and then something came up and like, everything’s just gone,” Saghari said.
The administration has indicated it will keep the bans in place until it determines that the identified screening inadequacies have been addressed. In the meantime, admitted students from affected countries face continuing uncertainty about whether they will be able to take up places on American campuses this academic year.