Over 7,000 of those scholar and change guests that overstayed their visas got here from India, home representatives heard in a committee listening to on immigration enforcement within the US on January 22.
“Thirty-two nations have scholar/change customer overstay charges of upper than 20%,” Jessica Vaughan, director of coverage research on the anti-immigration think-tank, the Middle for Immigration Research, advised the committee.
Nonetheless, sector leaders have argued that Vaughan’s testimony contained “some critical and inaccurate generalisations” and relied on “defective statistics for her declare concerning the scholar visa overstay charge,” in accordance with NAFSA‘s director of immigration coverage, Heather Stewart.
“Worldwide college students are probably the most tracked non-immigrants within the US and a transparent and complete understanding of scholar visa misuse is required if the sector is to reach at efficient and applicable options,” stated Stewart.
After India, Vaughan highlighted China, Colombia and Brazil as every having greater than 2,000 of their residents overstay scholar/change visas in 2023, urging Congress to eradicate OPT and impose penalties for institutional sponsors, amongst a number of rules.
“The F and M visa classes have [the] highest overstay charges of any of the broad classes of non permanent admission,” Vaughan advised committee members, with F visas used for educational examine and M visas for vocational examine.
In keeping with latest DHS figures, the entire overstay charge for scholar and change guests in 2023 was 3.67% with a suspected in-country overstay charge of two.86%, dropping barely to 2.69% solely for F-1 college students, with all metrics excluding Mexico and Canada.
Nations with highest scholar/change overstay charges by numbers (2023):
| Nation | Suspected in-country overstays | Complete overstays | Complete overstay charge |
| India | 5,818 | 7,081 | 4.67% |
| China | 3,012 | 5,255 | 2.1% |
| Colombia | 2,792 | 3,223 | 8.29% |
| Brazil | 1,692 | 2,198 | 4.6% |
Whereas India, China, Colombia and Brazil recorded the biggest numbers of scholar overstays in 2023, their overstay charge as a share of total scholar populations within the US have been comparatively low.
It’s maybe unsurprising that India and China, whose mixed scholar populations made up 54% of complete worldwide enrolments at US establishments in 2023/24, additionally noticed the very best ranges of visa overstays.
| Nation | Complete overstay charge |
| Equatorial Guinea | 70.18% |
| Chad | 55.64% |
| Eritrea | 55.43% |
| Congo (Kinshasa) | 50.06% |
| Djibouti | 43.75% |
| Burma | 42.17% |
| Yemen | 40.92% |
| Sierra Leone | 35.83% |
| Congo (Brazzaville) | 35.14% |
| Togo | 35.05% |
| World (excl. Mexico + Canada) | 3.67% |
Notably, the ‘in-country overstay charge’ refers back to the share of people suspected to nonetheless be bodily current within the US after their visa expired, whereas the ‘complete overstay charge’ contains each these nonetheless within the nation and people who could have ultimately left after overstaying their visa, however weren’t recorded as departing.
Sector members have raised considerations concerning the “troubling” scale of the issue uncovered by the report, starting from benign violations of authentic college students to “instances of wilful fraud”, stated Eddie West and Anna Esaki-Smith, two main US educators.
NAFSA, nevertheless, has disputed the figures as “unreliable”, claiming that the report “overstates” the problem and urged stakeholders to take warning when taking the figures out of context.
Certainly, DHS concedes that “infrastructural, operational and logistical challenges” within the exit surroundings make it troublesome to establish college students who don’t depart by way of air or who transition from F-1 standing to H-1B, authorized everlasting residency and different statuses.
What’s extra, DHS knowledge revealed a 42% decline within the suspected overstay charge for scholar and change guests throughout a 15-month interval ending in January 2024, indicating a lag time for the system to register college students’ altering conditions.
“Not solely do visa issuance insurance policies should be adjusted and inside enforcement boosted, as well as Congress ought to amend the regulation in a number of vital methods,” Vaughan advised the listening to.
In a press release elevating some concern about Vaughan’s testimony, she really helpful that “the idea of twin intent mustn’t apply to scholar visa candidates”.
Underneath present regulation, it doesn’t.
Whereas the Non-obligatory Sensible Coaching (OPT) program has been extensively confirmed to profit American staff in addition to worldwide graduates, Vaughan blamed the initiative for spawning “an business of diploma mills and pretend colleges”, calling for it to be eradicated or “a lot, rather more intently regulated”.
Vaughan additionally really helpful stricter rules on H1-B specialty occupation visas, a transfer which Stewart warned would “instantly” make the US look much less engaging to worldwide college students who “strongly take into account” post-study employment alternatives when deciding the place to review overseas.
Throughout Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign, he stunned among the sector.
The second-time US president spoke out in assist of the H1-B visa throughout his presidential marketing campaign amid a row concerning the work pathway amongst distinguished Republicans.
The US is the one one out of the ‘Huge 4’ examine locations – US, UK, Australia and Canada – to publish knowledge on worldwide scholar overstay charges.
