(José Niño, Headline USA) Immigration restrictionists in America have turned their attention to a New Delhi sit-down between the U.S. ambassador and a chief minister from southern India.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy urged U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor last Wednesday to widen the flow of visas for students leaving his state, according to a report published by Telangana Today.
Their conversation ran half an hour and covered education, employment, investment, technology and research, Telangana Today wrote. Reddy wanted Gor’s help landing faster appointments and shorter waits for interview slots for students bound for American universities.
Professionals with roots in the state have hit walls on H-1B processing, renewals and stamping, and Reddy raised those cases too. He asked that Washington flag changes to visa rules before they are implemented, then made his sales pitch, telling Gor that American companies in IT, artificial intelligence, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, startups and emerging technologies would find opportunities in Telangana.
The ambassador answered with a general assurance. Telangana Today reported that Gor promised full cooperation on trade, investment and cultural exchange linking the state to the United States.
American immigration hawks picked the story up fast.
“The Trump admin finally stopped rubber-stamping student visas plagued by fraud (especially from India). Now Indian officials are lobbying @USAmbIndia to reverse it. America First means holding the line,” the U.S. Tech Workers account posted on X.
The Trump admin finally stopped rubber-stamping student visas plagued by fraud (especially from India). Now Indian officials are lobbying @USAmbIndia to reverse it. America First means holding the line. https://t.co/jDbK3PAgOD
— U.S. Tech Workers (@USTechWorkers) August 6, 2026
A sharper take came from Nick Plumb, who steered his followers toward the same Telangana Today story.
“Believe it or not – India just asked their daddy to use his influence to increase student visas and expedite H-1Bs,” Plumb wrote, adding, “We’ve got to get him out of there.”
Hard data backs the underlying grievance. Consulates handed out 22,149 F-1 visas to Indian nationals between May and August 2025, a 62 percent slide from the 58,694 granted across the same stretch the previous year, according to a Center for Immigration Studies analysis. Chinese nationals saw a 34 percent decline. About three quarters of the Indian student visas granted in a given year clear during those four months.
Policy explains much of the gap. On May 27, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed all U.S. embassies and consulates to pause scheduling new student visa interviews for F, M, and J visa applicants worldwide, in preparation for expanded social media vetting.
When the State Department resumed scheduling on June 18, it required all applicants to set their social media accounts to public so consular officers could screen them for “hostility” toward U.S. citizens, culture, government, or institutions— nd treat private accounts as potential evidence of evasiveness. DHS published a separate final rule on July 17, 2026 that scraps the longstanding duration of status framework and replaces it with fixed admission periods capped at four years, effective September 15, 2026, pending congressional review.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
