Indian Student With $100,000 Columbia Scholarship Denied US Visa. Here's Why

NDTV World ^ | 10/7/2025 | Sanstuti Nath

[marcusmaximus]

Kaushik Raj, a 27-year-old journalist from Delhi, was all ready to live his American dream with a $100,000 (approximately Rs 89 lakh) scholarship in hand to pursue a master's degree in data journalism at Columbia University. But all his plans came crashing down when the United States' immigration department denied his student visa.

Raj, who completed all the visa formalities, including the interview, believes the rejection was linked to his social media activity. Under the Donald Trump administration, social media vetting has become an integral part of the visa selection process.

Speaking to The Washington Post, Raj claimed he wasn't very active on social media and "refrained from publicising his personal feelings about hot-button global issues, such as Israel's war in Gaza."

However, he said that in four years of his journalistic career, he often focused on hate crimes, which was reflected in his social media activities.

Raj's semester at Columbia University was set to start in August, but around that time, he received a letter from the US Embassy in New Delhi telling him his application had been rejected.

The letter said that Raj, who was born and raised in India, had not demonstrated sufficient ties to the country that would “compel” him to return home after his time in the United States. The letter made no mention of his online activity.

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[Track9]

We need a ‘Team America’ for hajis.

[9YearLurker]

Sensitive this morning! Do you feel disrespected somehow IRL?

[DeplorablePaul]

India made a big mistake buying Russian oil. It won’t be long before the Indian government is blamed for the H!B crisis. Trump is a genius.

[philman_36]

Sensitive this morning!
NOPE. I haven't turned suddenly stupid either.

[logi_cal869]

You’ve shifted from anti-Russia to anti-India posts.

Curious…and telling. /s

[MayflowerMadam]

Pfffft! Blather.

[CptnObvious]

Let's see. Journalism, hmmm, not science or technical.

I don't see how this fits into the program and how one could justify taking away an America job here.

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

We have enough psycho lefty liar loonies from right here rotting our journalism. Stay home and poison the journalism in your own country.

[silverleaf]

Like the US has a shortage of fake news “ data journalists”….?

[HamiltonJay]

I know this is callous but WHO CARES?

It stinks to not get what you planned or wanted, but that’s life.

Just because a university says we really want you to attend, does not remotely mean you deserve or should get a Visa to attend it.

If this guys that good, he’ll have no problem attending a top notch school for his masters at any number of universities around the globe.

[Bernard]

So if this guy is on a $100K SCHOLARSHIP that means somebody paid the 100k and this guy pays nothing out of pocket. Is Columbia tapping their endowments to finance this? Sweet deal. Too bad no American qualified for this program.

[NorthMountain]

master's degree in data journalism

What an utterly useless piece of dross ...

[NorthMountain]

How about give that 100k to an American white hetero male who wants to study something worthwhile. We DON'T need more heavily credentialed liars.

[shotgun]

My thoughts exactly. Same with the Chinese. They have 20 years of Ivy League graduates including coveted PhDs, so why don’t they start their own version of Ivy league universities and teach their own? Obviously thats a rhetorical question as they come here to steal our intellectual property.

Otherwise, they would see the benefits of living and learning in a capitalist society, go home and take positions in China to change their own country.

[telescope115]

Or cleaning up the Ganges river by retrieving all the floating dead bodies bobbing up and down

I’ve seen pictures, and it made me physically ill. I don’t know how anyone on this earth can tolerate it.

[Kilroywashere1776]

It wasn’t ICE but an American Consular Officer working for the Dept of State who refused the visa citing 214b of the Immigration act.

[gunnut]

If the6 have so many great engineers ,why is their country the crap hole it is?

[tumblindice]

2039, and we’re up to our buttocks in Indians:
“We should have written our own programs.”
.2% are doing this, so you know.

[kiryandil]

Or cleaning up the Ganges river by retrieving all the floating dead bodies bobbing up and down.

Or cleaning up the Dnepr river by retrieving all the floating dead Ukie Marine bodies bobbing up and down near Krynky.

[kiryandil]

Indian engineers suck.

Kiev's air defenses suck.