Overview

• Consular processing slowed this summer for added screening, leaving many admitted students unable to secure interviews or travel before classes began.
• The policy fully blocks most new visas from 12 countries and imposes tighter rules on seven others, with narrow exemptions for green-card holders and dual nationals.
• State Department data show more than 5,700 F-1 and J-1 visas were issued to people from the affected countries between May and September last year, over half to citizens of Iran and Myanmar.
• Students describe disrupted plans: an Afghan admittee canceled a scheduled interview after the ban and was denied a deferral, an Iranian student deferred enrollment, and a Myanmar student lost his place at the University of South Florida.
• Researchers and students are turning to Europe after postponed or lost U.S. opportunities, including an Iranian visiting scholar whose University of Pennsylvania appointment was pushed to next year.