Foreign Student Spending In US Is Dropping On Visa Crackdown

Spending in the US by foreign students fell in the 12 months through September by the most on record, excluding the pandemic, according to monthly figures published Friday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The 5.3% decline — amounting to about $3 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate — follows a crackdown by the Trump administration on visas for foreign students, which led to a plunge in enrollment in the 2025 fall semester. Such a drop in spending is unprecedented in data going back to 1982, outside of the Covid period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Friday’s report also showed overall spending in the US by foreigners — which includes travel and medical expenditures — was down 7.6%, or $16.6 billion, from a year earlier.