"Over the last six months the Trump Administration has clamped down on international student visas, temporarily pausing and then revamping the student visa interview process and bringing more scrutiny to the vetting system. That led to long delays and meant many accepted students couldn't get appointments at embassies or consulates in time for the start of the fall semester. "I only had one goal from the beginning, it was to go to college here,"
"so if I didn't reach that goal it would have been very painful," explains Shivaka Sing, a freshman psychology major from New Delhi. When she got accepted to Buffalo she joined a group chat of other students from India. Many of them couldn't get a visa appointment in time to start the fall semester with her. "Most of them are now transferring to the U.K. because of the visa situation," she says. "Some are planning to defer to the spring semester.""
Classes began at the University at Buffalo with about 750 fewer international students than expected, and incoming students from more than 100 countries received a welcome from the dean of students. Many arrivals faced long visa delays, with some receiving student visas only days before orientation and describing the process as awful. Changes in U.S. visa interview procedures and increased vetting produced long embassy and consulate appointment backlogs. The decline at Buffalo is roughly 15% overall and concentrated in graduate and STEM programs. Many affected students are transferring to the U.K. or deferring enrollment to a later term.
Read at www.npr.org
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