(INDIA) — Indian students are scaling back U.S. study plans as rupee weakness, rising fees and visa rejections squeeze family budgets and raise doubts about post-study work prospects.
Official U.S. government data and recent policy moves have coincided with what experts call the “most challenging season” for overseas education in a decade, as families weigh whether they can still afford an American degree and whether students can clear tougher screening.
Cost pressures and currency impact
Overseas education costs surge for Indians as the Indian Rupee’s slide raises tuition bills at the same time that visa rejections climb and processing hurdles multiply, adding uncertainty at every step from interviews to optional practical training.
The Indian Rupee hit a record low of 91 against the US Dollar in December 2025. Combined with 10–12% annual inflation in U.S. education costs, that depreciation has added an estimated ₹4 lakh to ₹5 lakh ($4,800–$6,000) per year to the average student’s budget.
The financial hit does not end with tuition. Families budgeting for flights, housing deposits, health insurance and other up-front costs can face added losses when visas are refused late in the cycle, a risk that grows as rejection rates rise.
Visa trends and processing changes
Those pressures arrive as official visa data shows F-1 student visa rejections for Indian applicants reached 44% in the 2024–2025 cycle. Between October 2024 and March 2025, F-1 visa approvals for Indian nationals fell by 44% year-on-year.
The tougher environment has also shown up at the front end of the pipeline, where interview slots and processing times can determine whether a student makes it to campus on schedule.
In May 2025, the State Department suspended student visa interviews for three weeks to implement “enhanced scrutiny of social media accounts.” That pause fed into significant backlogs at consulates in Hyderabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi, creating additional timing risk even for applicants who already have admissions offers and funding plans.
Fee changes have added another layer of cost for students already in the United States managing paperwork for work authorization or status changes. Effective January 10, 2026, DHS increased premium processing fees for I-765 (OPT) and I-539 (Change of Status) applications to reflect inflation from 2023–2025.
Policy changes affecting the student-to-work pathway
U.S. policy changes have also raised the stakes for students who hope a U.S. degree will lead to work authorization and eventually an H-1B job.
A Presidential Proclamation titled “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers” mandated a $100,000 supplemental fee for all new H-1B petitions on September 19, 2025.
A White House spokesperson framed the fee as a labor-market safeguard. “The $100,000 payment required to supplement new H-1B visa applications is a significant first step to stop abuses of the system and ensure American workers are not replaced by lower-paid foreign labor,” the spokesperson stated on November 14, 2025.
For Indian students and families, the immediate effect has been a recalculation of the student-to-work pathway. Families are now “stress-testing” budgets, as the $100,000 H-1B fee has made the traditional pathway from “Student” to “Worker” financially prohibitive for many.
Career planning has also been clouded by new screening steps that touch benefits commonly used by international students. USCIS issued Policy Memorandum PM-602-0194 on January 1, 2026, placing an “adjudicative hold” on all pending benefit requests, including OPT and STEM OPT, for individuals from 39 “high-risk” countries.
India is not currently on that specific high-risk list, but the memo signaled a broader move toward “rigorous, security-focused screening” for international applicants. The policy memo itself is posted as Policy Memorandum PM-602-0194 (Jan 1, 2026).
Proposed stay-limit change and academic planning
Students weighing longer programs have faced a separate source of uncertainty: a proposed change to how long they can stay in the United States.
DHS proposed a rule on August 28, 2025, to eliminate “Duration of Status” (D/S) for F and J visa holders and replace it with a fixed four-year stay limit.
DHS officials wrote in the proposal, “Replacing duration of status with fixed periods of stay will provide the Department with a more effective mechanism for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the terms of student and exchange visitor visas.” For some students, that structure raises the prospect of extensions and approvals becoming central to academic planning.
How families and students are responding
The combination of higher costs and weaker odds has started to show up in India’s outward flows. RBI data shows outward remittances for education dropped 23% in late 2025, a sign that students are deferring or canceling plans for the United States.
Some have shifted toward domestic options, while others have turned to countries with clearer post-study work routes, including Germany. The destination shift reflects a search for predictability as much as a search for affordability.
USCIS has not placed India on the PM-602-0194 list, but students and employers have had to account for the broader message of tighter screening. That comes alongside a sharply higher H-1B price tag that some families and students say employers are passing on to candidates or avoiding through reduced sponsorship.
- Families are stress-testing budgets against higher tuition and potential future fees.
- Students face longer timelines due to interview suspensions and consulate backlogs.
- Post-study work plans are uncertain because of fee changes, screening memos, and proposed stay limits.
Guidance and data sources students use
U.S. agencies have continued to publish guidance and statistics that students use to plan finances and gauge trends, even as policy moves reshape the landscape.
DHS maintains financial ability guidance for students through Study in the States financial ability, and the State Department posts visa trends through visa statistics.
USCIS updates policy and operational changes through its USCIS Newsroom, which students and employers monitor as they plan filings tied to study, training and work authorization.
Overall impact and outlook
Taken together, the measures and data points have marked a shift away from the “mass migration” era of the previous decade, changing the risk calculation for families treating U.S. education as a long-term investment.
Rupee depreciation has turned dollar-denominated tuition into a moving target, while visa rejections have turned admissions into only one of several hurdles. For families already hit by higher dollar costs, the 91-per-dollar level in December 2025 has made budgeting more volatile at precisely the moment when visa outcomes have become harder to predict.
That volatility matters because the added ₹4 lakh to ₹5 lakh ($4,800–$6,000) per year compounds across multi-year programs, pushing total costs higher even before accounting for the risk of delays or denials.
The result has been a season in which students face pressure at each stage: paying for admissions preparation and deposits, securing interview appointments amid backlogs, passing heightened scrutiny, and then building a post-study plan in an environment where fees and rules can change.
With visa rejections at 44% for the 2024–2025 cycle and approvals down 44% year-on-year between October 2024 and March 2025, many families have begun treating an overseas admit as uncertain until the visa stamp is in hand.
