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Indian students admitted to universities in the US are struggling to secure visa appointments, sparking uncertainty and anxiety before the academic year begins in August and September – a situation that many describe as being worse than in recent years when visa dates have been persistently backlogged.

Applying for an F-1 US visa requires applicants to present what is known as an I-20 document that universities supply once an admission offer is accepted. (Representative Image/ Unsplash )Education counsellors and applicants say those who applied for visa slots after April have faced severe difficulties obtaining appointments.

“Students are not getting appointments. I don’t know what people are going to do because this year is unprecedented. In earlier years, they came up with emergency appointments for this. But I haven’t heard this yet and today is the 17th of July,” said Mrinalini Batra, who leads International Education Exchange, an education consultancy.

According to Batra, applicants seeking appointments post-April have encountered the steepest hurdles.

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The crisis gained widespread attention on Thursday when an Indian law student from Kerala, who said she had an admission offer and a 90% scholarship from Harvard Law School, shared her inability to book a visa slot on social media platform X.

Parents face similar delays. “We’ve been trying for over a month now for appointments. We received the I-20 well on time from my son’s chosen US university, and everything was going through. But there are no visa slots available at all. The earliest slot that is now coming is somewhere in September and October. But colleges start around mid-August and we have nothing here,” said the parent of a student hoping to enroll at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

Applying for an F-1 US visa requires applicants to present what is known as an I-20 document that universities supply once an admission offer is accepted. While admission acceptance processes begin by December, it can stretch on till March and April – leaving many with no option but to apply then.

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The US Embassy in New Delhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The fact that there are no slots this year is really something new. Earlier, they did release slots and I didn’t hear of anyone who didn’t go last year because they didn’t get a slot. They didn’t go because they didn’t get a visa. Now there are two students I know who are waiting and if they don’t get appointments by the end of this month, I think that they will opt to go to either Singapore or the UK, assuming they get those visas,” Batra said.

Parents noted they have contacted US institutions directly regarding the bottleneck. In one instance, a university offered to defer a student’s admission to the spring semester starting in January.

The visa delays add to growing apprehension among Indian families regarding higher education in the US, alongside concerns over rising anti-immigrant sentiment and racism. Policy shifts — including the termination of “duration of status” student visas in favour of fixed four-year visas, as well as mandatory social media background checks — have further signalled a stricter environment for foreign students.

Also Read | New US visa policy limits duration for foreign students: What Indian candidates must know

Data from the Institute of International Education shows nearly 60% of US universities reported a drop in international student applications for the 2025–26 academic year.