Chinese Students in U.S. Warned to Stay Put Ahead of Second Trump Term
Consulate recommends against unnecessary travel as schools urge international students to be in place before inauguration
Chinese authorities are advising Chinese students in the U.S. to think twice about leaving the country over for the holidays, adding to warnings by a dozen American universities to international students to be back on campus before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Students should “try to reduce unnecessary cross-border travel,” China’s Consulate General in Chicago said in a Dec. 14 note on its website, referring to holidays approaching.
The visas of Chinese students, particularly in the sciences, were targeted during Trump’s first term, and many Chinese students now studying at U.S. schools are feeling on edge ahead of his return to the White House.
Many are now scrambling to change travel plans while also thinking about a Plan B if tougher visa rules come into effect next year.
A 26-year-old graduate student at Columbia University in New York, who asked to be identified only by her surname, Guo, said she is still going to visit her partner in Europe during the winter break. To make sure she won’t have any trouble returning, she booked a return flight on Jan. 19, just ahead of the inauguration and a few days before the spring semester starts.
She is set to graduate next year and, feeling a sense of belonging in the U.S., she had hoped to stay and find a job. Uncertainty now surrounds those plans as well as those of other Chinese students, who have flocked to Chinese social-media platforms to vent their frustration about not knowing what is ahead.
“I wake up in the middle of the night, worrying about what to do next,” Guo said. “Anxiety is through the roof, and almost everyone I know feels so lost.”
During Trump’s first term, Chinese students were under heightened scrutiny and faced a range of restrictions. The Trump administration focused in particular on Chinese nationals deemed security risks to American scientific research, including Chinese graduate students and postgraduate researchers who had studied at Chinese universities with close ties to the country’s defense industry.
In 2020 alone, more than 1,000 Chinese nationals had their visas revoked over such concerns, according to data provided by the U.S. State Department.
When President Biden took office in 2021, he revoked several of Trump’s executive actions, including a ban on citizens entering the U.S. from several predominantly Muslim countries but some Chinese students continued being barred from entering the U.S. or being deported.
Admission to a U.S. university is no guarantee a student will be issued a student visa.
Students say in recent years it has become more common for admitted Chinese students to be denied visas, especially those in so-called STEM fields.
Beyond graduation, the Optional Practical Training program lets international students work for a year in the U.S. while remaining on their student visas. After that, they need an employee sponsor to get a work visa under the H-1B program.
Like many fellow students, Guo said she is now considering pursuing a doctoral degree or moving to Europe as the chance of getting an employer-sponsored visa in the U.S. is getting slim.
While schools’ warnings have generally been directed at all international students, during internal meetings some school officials referred to students from China as facing increased risk, according to students and faculty members. Students said they had been advised by school officials to comply if immigration officers ask to check their electronic devices and to be careful with what they say on social media.
“A travel ban is likely to go into effect soon after inauguration,” Cornell University said in a note posted online in November. Apart from countries targeted in the first Trump administration such as majority-Muslim ones, China and India might also be added to the travel ban, Cornell said.
“To avoid any unexpected issues, we advise returning prior to the presidential inauguration,” according to a note posted on the University of Pennsylvania website.
The Chinese consulate in Chicago said it has been its practice to issue consular safety reminders before holidays. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it was also reminding students to enhance their security awareness during entry into the U.S.
Iris Feng, a Columbia statistics major, recently canceled a planned trip back to China on the advice of her parents, who urged her to stay put rather than risk running into trouble at the U.S. border on her return.
Feng, who like Guo is graduating next year, said she would try to pursue a work permit through the OPT program. If that doesn’t work, she plans to look for opportunities in Hong Kong.
Others are considering options such as a program known as EB-5, which offers permanent American residency to foreigners who invest in qualified job-creating projects.
A graduate student studying finance in New York said she had been back and forth on whether to seek a green card through the program, which requires a minimum investment of $800,000 for certain projects. Following the election results, she has decided to take the plunge, relying on pooled financial resources from her parents and extended family.
She is now working with a lawyer to get her EB-5 applications ready, hoping that will allow her to stay in the U.S.
She said she felt crushed by China’s stringent restrictions during the pandemic, when she and millions of others were cooped up inside amid crippling lockdowns. “I know people who have studied here, returned to China and are perfectly happy,” she said. “I don’t think that’s for me.”
Demand for EB-5 investment has increased after Trump’s re-election, said Sam Silverman, founder of EB5AN, which invests EB-5 capital into U.S. real-estate projects.
“Now that many foreign nationals with children on student visas realize it’s going to be much harder for their sons or daughters to stay in the U.S. after graduation, they are seriously considering an EB-5 investment to eliminate that obstacle,” Silverman said.
India surpassed China as the top country of origin for international students, with 331,602 Indian students in the U.S. during the latest academic year, according to data released in November by the Institute of International Education. China came second, with 277,398 students. India and China combined still made up over half of all international students in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans studying in China has been declining for over a decade amid rising U.S.-China tensions and the tightening of controls on expression under Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
More than 11,000 Americans were studying in China before the pandemic. According to the most recent IIE data, only 469 American students studied in academic-credit programs in China during the 2022-2023 academic year. The tally didn’t include internships and research work.