After taking office in January, President Donald Trump moved swiftly to attack higher education institutions, freezing federal funding and instituting new immigration policies that left international students scrambling to acquire visas in time for the 2025-2026 school year. In some cases, they were unable to enter the country at all.
“A limited number of international students did not arrive on campus in time for the start of the Fall Quarter,” a Northwestern spokesperson wrote in an October email to The Daily.
One of those international students, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, is still at home in Burundi. He was accepted as an Early Decision applicant in the 2024-2025 admissions cycle and expected to start at NU this Fall Quarter.
“I was over the moon when I opened my page of the portal, and I saw the confettis,” he said. “I actually tried to refresh the page over and over just to make sure that it was real, because, I mean, it seems, I would say surreal for me, but it was really amazing.”
After being accepted, he quickly connected with other incoming students online and even found a roommate. He was supposed to arrive on campus in early September for international student orientation.
His initial visa application was rejected in May 2025. Before he could sign up for another visa interview, Trump signed an executive order in early June entitled “Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” The order, which remains active, completely blocks entry from 12 countries primarily in Africa and the Middle East. It also partially restricts entry from another seven, including nations in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Burundi falls into the latter category. The order suspends entry for several groups of Burundian nationals, including nonimmigrants on F-1 and J-1 visas, the two most common visa types for international students.
After holding out hope for several months, the Burundian NU student realized he would not be able to acquire his visa in time for the 2025-2026 school year. By August, he had requested that the University defer his enrollment to the 2026-2027 school year.
“It was heartbreaking,” he said. “I had done everything I had to do on my end, so it was devastating, realizing that whatever is happening is beyond my control.”
Delayed interviews add to visa chaos
International students are on the front line of the Trump administration’s war on higher education, with numerous reports of revoked visas and students turned back at airports this past summer.
For the students who did manage to acquire visas, the process was more uncertain than in previous years.
While Bienen fifth-year Dami Akanni, who is from Nigeria, said he has not had to worry about his own visa, he explained he knows many international students who struggled to acquire visas in time for the start of the school year.
“(Getting a visa interview) is just definitely a much tougher process now. A lot of students are even struggling to get interviews to come to school,” Akanni said to The Daily ahead of the start of Fall Quarter. “Some countries are being banned completely from even just getting visas.”
At the end of May, the Trump administration temporarily placed a hold on student visa interviews globally. Although the hold was lifted in June, the frequent policy changes left incoming international freshmen in limbo.
Akanni said he’s heard about an increase in both visa denials and wait times for visa interviews from other international students. Even for students who obtained a visa without hiccups, the process was accompanied by apprehension.
“I got super lucky because I signed up for my interview before they put it on hold,” said Cassie Song, a Communication freshman from Hong Kong. “If you didn’t sign up before that, you literally just had to wait until they reopened it.”
She said her high school back in Hong Kong was only too aware of the possibility of visa troubles, with high school counselors reaching out to Song to confirm that she had received her visa.
While the process went smoothly for her, Song said a friend from Hong Kong attending another American university missed orientation due to visa interview delays.
To travel or not to travel
Even with a visa in hand, traveling experiences can vary wildly. While some students, like Song, had no trouble entering the country, others experienced significant obstacles at the airport, and some were even forced to scrap travel plans entirely.
After reading stories about international students who had been deported upon flying into the U.S., Weinberg junior Luca Insfran, an international student from Paraguay, took precautions ahead of traveling to campus this year, including deleting his social media accounts.
“They do ask a lot more questions than usual,” Insfran said. “Like, ‘What’s my major?’ and ‘Why haven’t I updated my I-20?’ and ‘What do I have in my suitcase?’”
At the airport, after Insfran told officials that he was an enrolled student, he was asked to unlock his phone and allow officials to access his online course registration portal to verify enrollment, something he said had never happened to him before. The experience was “pretty scary,” Insfran said.
He had been planning to study abroad Winter and Spring 2026 and return home over the summer, but, concerned he would not be able to re-enter the U.S. after nine months abroad, Insfran decided to drop his Winter Quarter study abroad program.
“I was just very fearful of leaving the U.S. for nine months, because that is a pretty scary thing to leave for such a long time,” Insfran said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen from here in nine months.”
The risk of being unable to return to campus has led many international students to reconsider going home over academic breaks this year. Some have opted not to go home at all.
Akanni said he had been considering returning home for winter break, but “erased” the idea, due in part to the Trump administration’s constantly changing travel policies.
“There’s so much fluctuation… that you really don’t know if it’s safe to go back home and be able to come back and complete your courses,” he explained.
While much of the University’s incoming international student class was ultimately able to enter the country without problems, and still intends to travel, for many, the uncertainty this year has been sobering.
“I feel like the U.S. is freedom… no matter where you’re from, everyone has the chance to achieve your dreams and all that stuff,” Song said. “But then I think after all this, it makes people wonder if I really want to go to the U.S.?”
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