Washington, March 23
India and China have been among the hardest hit by a tougher US immigration policy under President Donald Trump, with the United States issuing around 250,000 fewer visas in the first eight months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to a media report. State Department data released in early March showed that from January to August 2025, the US approved 11% fewer permanent resident and temporary visas than during the same period a year earlier.
The visas affected include those typically granted to students, workers and family members of US citizens and legal residents.
The decline does not include tourist visas, which also fell over the same period, according to The Washington Post.
The newspaper reported that visas issued to Indian and Chinese nationals dropped by around 84,000 compared with the same period in 2024, largely due to fewer student and worker visas.
Business and tourism visas also fell by about 3.4% in the first eight months of 2025, a decline of nearly 200,000 visas.
Student visas saw one of the sharpest drops. Between January and August 2024, the US issued more than 344,000 student visas. That number fell to just over 238,000 during the same period in 2025.
Family preference visas — which cover categories such as adult children and siblings of US citizens — fell by more than 27%, a reduction of over 44,000 visas.
Visas issued to sea and airline workers dropped by 30,876, while visas for cultural exchange visitors declined by 29,594.
The number of visas granted to fiancés and spouses also fell sharply, from 37,229 in the first eight months of 2024 to 18,894 during the same period in 2025.
Defending the administration’s policy, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said President Trump had been elected with a “resounding mandate” to put American citizens first, and that his decisions reflected that priority.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told The Washington Post that “a visa is a privilege, not a right”, adding that the administration would not “compromise the safety of American citizens” by allowing what he described as “mass migration of unvetted foreign nationals”.
The figures are likely to raise concern in countries such as India and China, where large numbers of students and professionals traditionally seek to move to the United States for education, employment and family reunification.
