New information from the US state division reveals 411,131 F-1 visas have been issued in whole in 2022, in comparison with 364,204 in 2019 (the final yr unaffected by the pandemic). 

Primarily based on present developments, the federal government expects visa issuances for college kids to be even increased in 2023 than final yr. 

In response to a state division official, ​​over 393,000 F-1 visas have been issued this fiscal yr as much as the start of August. 

Popping out of the pandemic, US consulates confronted staffing shortages and a backlog of visa purposes, resulting in lengthy delays for candidates and a shortage of visa appointment slots. 

However in India, the place the best demand is coming from, pupil recruitment brokers say this yr has been a lot smoother. 

Beforehand some candidates have been pressured to journey to different cities and nations to safe a slot or pay third-party “brokers” a whole bunch of {dollars} to guide appointments on their behalf. 

However now a brand new US consulate has opened in Hyderabad, creating extra capability and that means college students within the area not have needed to journey as far for visa appointments. Appointments additionally opened earlier within the yr than beforehand, lowering the last-minute rush over summer season. 

Costs for visa reserving providers on the black market have additionally dropped to round 2,000 rupees (USD $24) because of much less demand, in keeping with Naveen Yathapu, director at recruitment company i20fever.

Yathapu mentioned he had skilled round a 90% approval charge amongst his roughly 4,000 college students this yr. 

“Issues have gotten higher”

However college students who have been rejected face lengthy wait instances earlier than they’ll safe one other appointment.

“The visa appointments have been good for the first-timers however what it meant was the delay for the second timers was fairly, fairly unhealthy,” Yathapu mentioned. 

US consulates have now launched dates for second appointments for college kids who weren’t authorized beforehand, however Yathapu believed this was too late for a lot of, who might be unable to safe a visa in time for the autumn consumption.

“There’s no different choice, they’ve to attend for six months. And some children, they don’t have the time to attend so that they search for an alternate nation,” he mentioned.  

Having learnt from final yr, the agent mentioned preparation for finding out within the US is now beginning a lot earlier. 

“Issues have gotten higher. College students are higher ready and so are companies like us and so are literally the colleges,” mentioned Yathapu. 

“We all know the issues so everybody has really began with planning earlier.”

2022 developments

Virtually 70% (274,880) of visas have been issued to college students from Asia in 2022. Of those, 115,115 went to Indian college students, up from 80,451 in 2021. 

An extra 61,894 went to Chinese language college students, a decline (-28,416) on the earlier yr as journey restrictions continued. 

The opposite largest markets in Asia have been South Korea (18,066), Japan (11,460), Vietnam (12,330), Bangladesh (7,754), Taiwan (6,913), and Nepal (6,175).

Inside Europe, main markets included Germany (7,248), France (7,025), Italy (5,957) and Spain (5,518). 

Roughly 7% of all visas have been issued to African college students, with the largest teams of scholars coming from Nigeria (7,547), Ghana (3,331) and Ethiopia (1,951). 

Regardless of issues round excessive visa refusal charges, these three nations all noticed development in comparison with the earlier yr and roughly 6,000 extra visas have been granted to African college students in whole.

In South America, Brazil remained the most important supply market (9,806), adopted by Colombia (7,038).