Student Visa Refusals Reached High of 35% Last Year

In some countries, over 90 percent of student visa applications were rejected. A new report argues that the current visa landscape “undermines the principle of merit-based entry.”

After international student enrollment crashed in fall 2025, a report from Shorelight, an international education firm, illuminates one factor that led to that decline: a bump in F-1 visa rejections, especially for students from a handful of countries that typically supply large numbers of international enrollees. MORE