ImmigrationClockFacts first
Visa Flow

F-1 student visas & legal immigration

Department of State visa issuances by class and country. State Department issuances differ from USCIS petition approvals.

F-1 issued · FY26 YTD
182,000
Year-to-date
F-1 · FY25
372,000-7.2%
Last complete year
J-1 exchange · FY25
305,000
State Dept issuances
H-1B issued · FY25
165,000
State Dept issuances

Why visa data lags

Unlike border encounters (updated monthly) or Texas layoffs (live), the State Department publishes visa issuances only as delayed PDF tables. We show the latest official figures and label current-year numbers as projections — see data & freshness for all sources.

  • State Dept Visa IssuancesCurated · delayed
    U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs · updates monthly
    ~10 months behind
    Latest: Monthly tables to Sep 2025 · FY2024 annual · through Sep 30, 2025
    Latest official published figuresDelayed reportingCurated / manual source

    The State Department publishes monthly issuances as PDFs on a lag (no machine-readable feed). Current-year figures shown on the site are clearly-labelled projections until the official tables catch up — we never present them as reported totals.

Visa issuances by class and fiscal year

H-1B, F-1 students, J-1 exchange, employment-based and family-based immigrant visas

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Personal relevance

What this means for you

International students

  • 372,000 F-1 student visas were issued in FY2025. Reported
  • FY2026 is running ~31% below last year's pace (projected full-year ~256.9K). Projected
  • The largest estimated source countries for F-1 students are India and China. Estimated

This is data context only — not legal or immigration advice. Figures are labelled reported, projected, or estimated; for individual situations consult a qualified professional.

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F-1 student visas by country

FY25 · estimated shares

H-1B approvals by country

FY24 · USCIS

USCIS H-1B statisticsUpdated Mar 4, 2025
Methodology & sources
Visa issuances are counted by the State Department when a visa is granted abroad. A person may hold an approved USCIS petition without a same-year visa issuance, so these series will not match USCIS approval counts. Read the full methodology →