Visa and immigration policy: The October 2025 APS-led amicus brief

“Amici maintain that that the ability of the United States to remain competitive in scientific and technological fields relies heavily on foreign-born individuals who come to the United States as students…. An unreliable, inconsistent, or capricious U.S. visa process undermines international students’ confidence in the system and contributes to a perception that the United States is unwelcoming to foreign students, thereby significantly and measurably harming the ability of educational institutions in the United States to attract the best and brightest international scholars. Because the United States, with only 4% of the world population, does not have sufficient domestic science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”) capacity to meet its needs, the loss of talented international scientists will reduce the quality and quantity of the trained technical workforce and harm the nation’s economy and security.

The current U.S. visa system, although complex, ordinarily offers a stable process and settled requirements that allow the top global talent to pursue their careers in and contribute to the United States. Defendants’ recent actions have changed that, creating a challenging and uncertain visa process that harms not only the students whose visas are canceled and the schools who lose those talented and promising students, but also the reputation of the United States as the most desirable destination for the brightest budding science scholars.”