In an open letter, lawmakers told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that delays in visa-processing times risk national security and billions of dollars for the economy.<\/p>\n
Drew Angerer\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Thirty senators wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging his agency to process international student and scholar visas in time for the start of the academic year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Led by Alex Padilla, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, the letter<\/a> cited \u201cthe ongoing unavailability of visa appointments during the peak visa application season for students and scholars.\u201d No timely visa appointments are available for students at some embassies and consulates, the senators said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese challenges come at a time when major academic institutions need skilled, international talent to begin their semesters. Without a fix, the repercussions will be felt across the academic and skilled-technical talent pipeline,\u201d the letter argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n Modeling<\/a>\u00a0from NAFSA, the association of international educators, and JB International shows that if visa delays continue, international student enrollments in the U.S. could drop by 15\u00a0percent in the next year, resulting in $7 billion in lost revenue. Recent changes to visa policies have contributed to a decline in the number of processed visas, according to NAFSA. The State Department\u00a0paused student visa interviews<\/a>\u00a0between May\u00a027 and June\u00a018 and then implemented\u00a0vetting protocols for students\u2019 social media accounts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Twenty-eight other Democrats signed the letter, including Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Raphael Warnock, as well as Angus King, an Independent. They called on the State Department to \u201crestore priority to interview, adjudicate, and process student visas in time for the upcoming school year.\u201d Lawmakers pushed the agency to extend interview waivers for vetted returning student applicants, adequately staff consulates for timely visa vetting and processing, and engage with stakeholders more transparently.\u00a0<\/p>\n They also pressed the secretary to resume posting monthly, accurate visa-issuance data by category (the most recent post was in September 2025) and asked him to explain how \u201cbona fide international students\u201d are still allowed entry under the new vetting procedures.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an open letter, lawmakers told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that delays in visa-processing times risk national…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[121],"tags":[1847,1846,1786,1845,836,186,50],"class_list":["post-190253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-marco-rubio","tag-career","tag-education","tag-events","tag-higher","tag-jobs","tag-marco-rubio","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117101301893392496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}