[throwaway5752]

This is just as true with Indian students. Most people don't know how hard, how expensive, and how long it takes for someone to become a naturalized citizen. Combined with hostile rhetoric towards immigrants - and staying away from politics as much as possible, this is a big factor and not always precisely targeted to "illegal" immigration, the US is just not as attractive for knowledge workers as it was 5-10 years ago.

[olcor]

I moved back home to India a couple months ago. Apart from the occasional mosquito bite and some customer service issues, there’s little difference.

No more nonsensical visa stuff to worry about; I live my current life and plan my future in peace.

[kevin_thibedeau]

It's not as attractive for the two countries with the largest number of applicants.

[rhcom2]

A friend's brother from India chose to study CS in Canada over the US due to the hostile political climate. He said, while he got into US schools and probably wouldn't have had any problem the idea that something could change a year or two down the line was a looming specter he'd rather just avoid.

[hostilerhetoric]

Name a single time that Donald trump has said that he wants to prevent highly intelligent, highly educated people from other countries coming here. Name a single instance of it. I defy you to.

[dgemm]

Regardless of what the guy says, the fact is there have been numerous quiet policy changes that target legal immigration.

[my_first_acct]

Welcome to HN.

A quick Google search on "Chinese grad student restrictions" yielded an article [1] from December 2018 with the headline "US Considers New Restrictions on Chinese Students". The source is the US government's own news outlet, Voice of America.

[1] https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/trump-administration-c...

[ageofwant]

For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit

[screye]

Why have the RFE rates at target companies sky rocketed ? Why has the EAD waiting time gone for <90days to ~120 days?

Actions speak louder than words here.