Irish students who applied for F-1 VISAs for full-time college-level academic study in the United States were approved at a rate of 65 percent in 2022 and 80 percent in 2021.
That’s based on information compiled by the website TheUSGrad.com, which is a nongovernmental information service that tracks data published by the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and other official information sources.
The F-1 VISA is the most common way for foreign students to receive permission to study in the U.S.
Another pathway is the M-1 VISA which is issued for vocational study.
Nine hundred thirty-three Irish students were approved F-1 VISAs to study in the United States in the 2022 federal fiscal year.
That was nearly a fourfold increase from 248 the year before. In the pandemic year of 2020, only 178 F-1 VISAs were approved for Irish students.
The most popular destination for these students is the University of Notre Dame, according to the State Department.
The State Department also publishes information for foreign students to research the cost of studying here in the States and the options for different fields of study.
Looking at the bigger picture, there were 289,526 international students from China studying in the United States in the 2022-23 academic year and another 268,923 foreign students from India.
Ireland is not even among the top 20 countries of origin for foreign students who are studying in the United States.
Of course, it is worth noting that Ireland is a small country with a population under 6 million that has fewer people than the state of Virginia’s more than 8.6 million.
The F-1 VISA only allows a student to study here in the U.S. and is not a direct path to citizenship.
However, foreign students do have the ability after graduation to apply for temporary legal employment through the Optional Practical Training Program, also known as OPT.
Employment through OPT is generally for 12 months but can be for up to three years for graduates with degrees in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.
There were 344,868 OPT-authorized foreign graduates in calendar 2023, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Over the last five years, the top 10 places of origin for OPT participants were India, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Nepal, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil, and Mexico.
India and China accounted 59 percent combined.
SOURCES:
Congressional Research Service April 9, 2024 report on Optional Practical Training: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12631
Irish F-1 VISAs by year: https://theusgrad.com/f1-visa-issuances-by-country/ireland-irl
-30-
