In the survey supported by the National Institutes of Health, 14% reported that immigration policy changes had forced scientists, students and postdocs to turn down offers to work in their labs, while 13% said their labs had lost researchers to other countries because of NIH funding cuts.
The poll, conducted by STAT News and the MassINC Polling Group between Jan. 28 and Feb. 18, surveyed 989 researchers across 45 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, with a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
Match Day 2026, when U.S. medical school graduates learn where they will train, produced a parallel signal. The match rate for non-U.S. citizen international medical graduates requiring visa sponsorship fell to 54.4%, a five-year low, according to data released March 20 by the National Resident Matching Program. By contrast, the match rate for foreign-born graduates not requiring sponsorship hit a five-year high of 67.9%. The split suggests U.S. residency programs are increasingly selecting for candidates who can reliably enter the country.
“It is going to cause a long-term brain drain. International scholars will stay closer to home,” Matthew Alexander, an associate professor of pediatric neurology and genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told STAT. “They’ll stay in Europe and they’ll stay in Asia. There are good institutions there too.”
$100,000 visa fee, expanded travel ban
Many international doctors and researchers in the U.S. hold H-1B visas. Under a presidential proclamation signed Sept. 19, 2025, employers must now pay a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions, up from roughly $2,000 to $5,000 previously. The fee took effect Sept. 21, 2025, and was upheld by a federal court in December 2025 after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities sued to block it.
A separate proclamation issued Dec. 16, 2025 expanded the travel ban to 39 countries, with 19 fully suspended for both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas and 20 partially suspended. The first iteration of the travel ban, in 2017, targeted seven countries. The current list, which took effect Jan. 1, 2026, covers Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela, and other countries across Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.
Eyas Mohammedalamin, who completed medical school in his native Sudan, said he did not match into a U.S. residency program despite interviewing widely. “You want to be not just a good doctor, but an amazing one,” he told STAT. During his interviews, he said, programs asked whether he had dual citizenship or other paths into the U.S. He is now doing an internship in Egypt and exploring options in Europe, South Africa, and Australia.
Fewer applications, more delays
U.S. labs report fewer applications from international candidates, and trainees already on visas are reluctant to travel home or to overseas conferences for fear of re-entry problems, scientists told STAT. Some doctoral students are weighing whether to leave their programs early if they have accumulated enough credits for a master’s degree.
Visa appointments are taking far longer to schedule, applicants are being required to open their social media profiles to government review, and immigration officials are more often requesting additional evidence for green card applications. “We are facing challenges at all phases of the game,” Jenny Bouta Mojica, an immigration attorney working with academic institutions, told STAT.
The travel ban is also affecting researchers and physicians already inside the U.S. The administration earlier this year froze the processing of visa renewals and work authorizations for people from the 39 banned countries, even those already legally present. Some physicians lost clearance to work while awaiting renewals, threatening patient care at affected clinics and hospitals.
The New York Times reported May 3 that the Department of Homeland Security had quietly lifted the hold on physicians’ visa renewal processing late the previous week, without formal announcement.
“Why are their visas being messed with if they’re already here, already in training, already doing what they’re supposed to be doing?” Susan Edionwe, president of the U.S.-based Nigerian Physician Advocacy Group, told STAT before the policy reversal. “We have a national physician shortage. We know that these trainees will go to rural communities and give care. It’s hurting Americans.”
The Trump administration has defended the screening regime as a corrective to what it has called inadequate vetting under the Biden administration. The Department of Homeland Security, in announcing the expanded travel ban in December 2025, said it was “slamming the door shut on the foreign invaders who have undermined our national security.”
The total number of non-U.S. citizen IMG applicants to U.S. residencies still rose 4.2% in the 2026 Match cycle, NRMP data show, suggesting interest in U.S. training remains strong even as success rates fall.
But, as one budding Indian scientist returning home to a biotech job after finishing her Ph.D. told STAT: “If I can find opportunities that are at par in India, why would I not take them?”
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