Over 7,000 of those scholar and alternate 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 international locations have scholar/alternate 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.
Nevertheless, sector leaders have argued that Vaughan’s testimony contained “some severe and inaccurate generalisations” and relied on “defective statistics for her declare in regards to the scholar visa overstay charge,” based on 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,” mentioned Stewart.
After India, Vaughan highlighted China, Colombia and Brazil as every having greater than 2,000 of their residents overstay scholar/alternate visas in 2023, urging Congress to remove 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 momentary admission,” Vaughan advised committee members, with F visas used for educational examine and M visas for vocational examine.
In accordance with latest DHS figures, the overall overstay charge for scholar and alternate 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.
International locations with highest scholar/alternate overstay charges by numbers (2023):
| Nation | Suspected in-country overstays | Whole overstays | Whole 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 most important numbers of scholar overstays in 2023, their overstay charge as a share of general 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 | Whole 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% |
| International (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 might have finally left after overstaying their visa, however weren’t recorded as departing.
Sector members have raised issues in regards to the “troubling” scale of the issue uncovered by the report, starting from benign violations of official college students to “instances of wilful fraud”, mentioned Eddie West and Anna Esaki-Smith, two main US educators.
NAFSA, nonetheless, has disputed the figures as “unreliable”, claiming that the report “overstates” the difficulty 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 through air or who transition from F-1 standing to H-1B, authorized everlasting residency and different statuses.
What’s extra, DHS information revealed a 42% decline within the suspected overstay charge for scholar and alternate 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 legislation in a number of essential methods,” Vaughan advised the listening to.
In an announcement elevating some concern about Vaughan’s testimony, she beneficial that “the idea of twin intent mustn’t apply to scholar visa candidates”.
Below present legislation, it doesn’t.
Whereas the Non-obligatory Sensible Coaching (OPT) program has been extensively confirmed to learn American staff in addition to worldwide graduates, Vaughan blamed the initiative for spawning “an trade of diploma mills and pretend colleges”, calling for it to be eradicated or “a lot, rather more carefully regulated”.
Vaughan additionally beneficial stricter rules on H1-B specialty occupation visas, a transfer which Stewart warned would “instantly” make the US look much less enticing 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 a few of the sector.
The second-time US president spoke out in help of the H1-B visa throughout his presidential marketing campaign amid a row in regards to the work pathway amongst outstanding Republicans.
The US is the one one out of the ‘Massive 4’ examine locations – US, UK, Australia and Canada – to publish information on worldwide scholar overstay charges.
