US Education Now A Gamble?

DECODE THE NEWS

The US Student Visa Crackdown Has Turned Study Dreams Into A Legal And Financial Gamble

What

When Donald Trump returned to power as US president in January 2025, there was little doubt among policymakers, student advisors, and visa experts that an immigration crackdown was coming. His campaign had laid it out in bold: stricter controls on foreign workers, tighter rules for visa overstays, and swift deportation of undocumented migrants. But there was also a widely shared assumption — almost a consensus — about the limits of this crackdown.

Study abroad counsellors, education financing platforms, immigration lawyers, and even Indian families settled in the United States told The Core — when we first reported on the issue in December — that the heat would be reserved for illegal immigrants, undocumented workers, or students who had overstayed their visas.

That assumption now lies in tatters.

Why?

In just three months, the Trump administration has weaponised the very systems designed to monitor legal student migration. Over 1,500 F-1 student visas have been revoked, and 4,736 Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records terminated, affecting students across more than 240 U.S. universities, according to government and media reports. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has called it one of the most aggressive deportation waves targeting documented students in recent history.

Indians are bearing the brunt: nearly 50% of all visa revocation cases involve Indian nationals, according to several reports. And while some students are quietly flying home, others are lawyering up.

Why Does It Matter?

This crackdown has shattered the long-standing belief that documented students were safe, and it's sending shockwaves through India’s education financing and advisory ecosystem. Immigration lawyers and other experts The Core spoke with said deportation notices to international students in the US are increasingly triggered by minor offences—from old police records to bureaucratic errors. Many students now face deportation or expensive legal battles due to these policy changes.

Many platforms that assist students in moving abroad also told The Core that although the risks are real, they remain statistically limited, but perception is shifting fast.  Platforms like Invest4Edu and GradRight confirm a drop in US-bound applicants and rising demand for alternative destinations like the UK, Australia and the UAE.

Students who banked on the optional practical training (OPT) and H1B visas as a pathway to repay their hefty education loans now face uncertainty. 

The big picture: what started as a political talking point has now become a full-blown disruption, not just for students in the US, but for the multi-billion-dollar Indian study abroad industry that supports them.

BUILD ON BLOCKCHAIN

Trust That’s Baked Into Tech

Have you ever been scammed online or received a product that you bought that did not live up to your expectations? We’ve all been there. From unscrupulous builders to fly-by-night chit funds, most of us have been at the receiving end of misplaced trust, even though the system depends a great deal on paperwork, notarised documents, and signatures. 

Despite these layers of assurances and security, frauds just keep getting slicker.

Math Nerd to the Rescue

But there is a system where you don't need to trust anyone blindly because assurance and trust are built into it. Enter: Blockchain.

How does it do that? Unlike the traditional system that gives a great deal of weightage to humans and their declarations, blockchain trusts math and logic.

Blockchain is like an online notebook where everyone can see what’s written, but no one can erase or modify anything once it’s in there.  

How can this technology be used specifically in the Indian context? 

This series is brought to you in partnership with Algorand. 

CORE NUMBER

Rs 1,00,484

This is the record-high price gold touched, per 10 grams, on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) on April 22, reflecting a nearly Rs 2,000 jump in a single day. The MCX is India’s largest commodity derivatives exchange. Analysts said the surge is driven by gold being treated as a rising safe-haven amid escalating US-China tensions, US president Donald Trump’s criticism of the Fed, and central banks ramping up gold purchases. While gold has jumped over 30% this year, experts urge investors to treat it as portfolio insurance, not a growth investment. 

— 🇮🇳🦁 ‘Make in India’ Finally Picks Up? The steep tariffs by the US on China are already pushing laptop and phone makers toward India, according to The Economic Times. Dixon Technologies, the report said, was investing Rs 1,000 crore in Tamil Nadu to manufacture laptops for HP and Lenovo; Alphabet Inc is talking to Dixon and Foxconn about moving manufacturing of Google’s Pixel smartphone from Vietnam to India; the Taiwanese brand Asus is partnering with VVDN to set up an assembly line in Manesar. The report said companies are attracted to the Indian government’s various Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, designed to boost manufacturing in the country. But critics believe that most companies that avail these schemes assemble rather than manufacture in India, which doesn’t benefit the country nearly as much. 

— 🛍️Amazon, Walmart Want Trade Deal Pie. India has been rushing to crack its bilateral trade deal with the US amid global trade tensions. And one of the demands of the Donald Trump-led US administration is reportedly to reduce restrictions on e-commerce giants like Amazon and Walmart, giving them full market access in India. According to The Financial Times,  the Trump administration is closely coordinating with Amazon and Walmart, as the US and India work out the details of the agreement. Right now, these companies cannot produce and sell goods directly to consumers, unlike their Indian counterparts. 

—🇺🇲 JD Vance’s India Visit. Speaking of the US-India trade deal, Vance, while on a trip to Rajasthan’s Jaipur with his family, made a public speech saying the Trump administration wants to deepen trade ties and expand exports of “cheap, dependable energy” to India. But he also called on New Delhi to reduce non-tariff barriers — regulations and local content rules that make it harder for US firms to compete in India. His remarks come as both nations push toward a bilateral trade deal, aiming to double trade to $500 billion by 2030. Energy and strategic goods are expected to be key components.

—😮‍💨 Mills Rejoice… For Now. India’s smaller steel mills are holding off job cuts and output cuts after the government imposed a 12% safeguard duty on select steel imports, mainly targeting China. The 200-day tariff is meant to protect local players, especially after imports soared to a nine-year high of 9.5 million tons in FY25. China was the second-biggest supplier after South Korea. According to Reuters, more steps are in the works to protect the industry, with the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) final report expected to come in by August-September. Meanwhile, with 14 million tons of new capacity added in 2024, India could once again become a net steel exporter by 2025.

PODCAST

On Episode 563 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd as well as Ashok K Bhattacharya, Editorial Director and columnist at Business Standard.

• Markets run up for 6th consecutive day 

• Gold prices touch Rs 100,000 per 10 gm in India, record highs globally

• Why are Indian markets rising and where could they go?

• Build on Blockchain

• US Vice Pres meetings in India raises hopes of favourable tariff deal

• US President Trump is going after the Federal Reserve Chairman for not cutting interest rates. What lessons does this hold for India?

• And another Chinese battery company promises even longer range for a 5 minute charge, beyond BYD’s claim last month

👥 THE TEAM

✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Salman SH, Kudrat Wadhwa | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas