International Students Enrolled in U.S. Universities Advised to Return Before Trump’s Inauguration
- While the ban is likely to include citizens of the countries targeted in the first Trump administration, Cornell University expects that new countries — particularly China and India — could be added to this list.
A growing number of U.S. colleges are advising foreign students to return to campus before president-elect Trump is sworn-in on Jan. 20, 2025, anticipating potential changes to immigration policies. Many say they fear that a travel ban could go into effect soon after inauguration. While the ban is likely to include citizens of the countries targeted in the first Trump administration, Cornell’s Office of Global Learning expects “new countries could be added to this list, particularly China and India.” The countries targeted in the first Trump administration include Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia.
More than 1.1 million students from outside the United States were enrolled in American colleges and universities in the 2023-24 academic year, according to Open Doors, a data project partially funded by the U.S. State Department. India was the most common place of origin for international students last year, followed by China; together, they accounted for more than half of all international students in the country. South Korea ranked third.
Colleges are also warning all students “to prepare for possible delays at the border and in the processing of paperwork,” The New York Times reported. Harvard University is suggesting that the international students plan ahead, as reported in The Harvard Crimson. “Our recurring advice to those who share concerns about situations that would disrupt or delay your return from break is to budget time ahead of the semester start, prior to the January Martin Luther King holiday,” the university said.
During his last administration, Trump imposed restrictions on entry to the United States from seven majority-Muslim countries, “a policy that stranded thousands of students who were abroad at the time,” according to The New York Times. Later in his term, Trump “added more countries to the restricted travel list,” the report said, noting that Trump has “spoken of wanting to reimpose those restrictions once he is back in the White House.”
In an email to international students, USC said they are expected to be in class when the semester starts on Jan. 13. The university noted that this is “especially important given that a new presidential administration will take office on January 20, 2025, and — as is common — may issue one or more Executive Orders impacting travel to the U.S. and visa processing,” as reported by Axios. “While there’s no certainty such orders will be issued, the safest way to avoid any challenges is to be physically present in the U.S. before the Spring semester” begins, the email stated.