Currency squeeze

Students and their families are scrambling to rework budgets after the rupee’s slide. Many applicants borrow in rupees and pay fees and living costs in foreign currencies, which makes a weaker rupee an immediate, measurable hit to household finances. For families like Priya’s, who had prepaid part of tuition and arranged loans for the rest, the recent depreciation has turned a manageable loan schedule into a heavier burden.

Placement agents and student counsellors say the rupee has fallen more than 10% against the US dollar over the past year. Sushil Sukhwani, founder of Edwise International, calculated that the rupee has depreciated between 35% and 47% against the currencies of major study destinations since 2019, a range he used to explain the scale of rising costs for Indian households. That longer run figure is Sukhwani’s calculation and not an official central bank number.

Edwise International, a major student placement agency, reports that enrolments to the UK and US have fallen roughly 20% over the last two years, and the agency expects a further 10 to 15% drop from those levels going forward. Universities in the UK told surveyors that 76% reported a decline in Indian enrolments for the January intake. US enrolments from India fell nearly 7% between February 2025 and February 2026.

Those shifts matter because many applicants factor expected post-study work into their decision to borrow. When the rupee weakens, the rupee cost of pursuing a degree abroad rises immediately, and the payback math that hinged on overseas salaries becomes less certain.

Visas and post-study prospects

Visa and immigration policy changes in destination countries have compounded the financial squeeze. Recruiters and admissions staff say tighter visa requirements and stepped-up enforcement in the UK and the US have reduced the perceived likelihood of securing post-study work options, which many applicants count on to service loans.

That perception is already deterring applicants, according to placement agents and student counsellors. Some recent graduates who found employment overseas have seen incomes rise, but those stories are uneven and aren't offsetting the broader decline in applications, agents say.

For students already overseas the problem is immediate. Many had prepaid part of their fees but are now refinancing loans or arranging fresh funds to meet future instalments after the rupee’s recent slide against major currencies. Counsellors report rising calls from students seeking advice on refinancing, emergency transfers and whether to return home temporarily to reduce living costs.

Admissions teams and recruiters are adjusting their forecasts. Several placement agencies are advising applicants to consider shorter programs, alternate destinations with lower living costs, or programs with stronger scholarship or on-campus work options. But those adjustments don't erase the central squeeze: a weaker rupee and tighter visa regimes make the overall proposition of studying abroad more expensive and riskier for many middle-class Indian families.

Outside the counselling rooms, the numbers tell the same story. More than 1.2 million Indian students were enrolled in higher education abroad in 2025, making India the largest source of international students. The scale of that cohort means shifts in application patterns can ripple through university admissions and the recruitment businesses that serve them.

Admissions teams and recruiters say they expect further published enrolment data for the autumn cycle to confirm the decline they're already seeing in recruitment surveys and placement-agent forecasts.

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• 5 Steps to Apply for Federal Student Loan Relief
• Japan quintuples visa fees to 15,000 yen

Which relief track applies to your loans

Step 1, identify the program. First, confirm you hold federal loans and decide which track fits your situation. One report noted the broad administrative forgiveness was tied to income thresholds and targeted borrowers with adjusted gross income under $125,000 for single filers or $250,000 for married filers, with up to $10,000 in relief and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients who meet the same tests. If you filed a borrower-defense claim or were part of a related settlement, you may belong to a settlement group that received relief. And if you have qualifying Direct Loans, you might qualify for interest-rate incentives if you enroll in automatic payments or consolidate to regain good standing.

Step 2, check the eligibility rules for the track you identified. The public forgiveness effort required income tests based on recent tax years, but the online form didn't require entering AGI because the department planned to verify income for selected applicants. For settlement tracks, eligibility hinged on having filed a borrower-defense claim in the settlement-defined windows or being part of settlement exhibits; some settlement programs provided relief for large groups of borrowers and created separate post-class applicant groups that could receive discharges. For repayment incentives, eligibility was tied to holding qualifying Direct Loans and completing enrollment steps such as turning on automatic payments or consolidating loans.

Step 3, gather the documents and account access the department will use. For the public forgiveness application the online form asked for basic identity and contact details, while income verification would be requested from some applicants after they submitted the form. The Education Department instructed borrowers in settlement-related tracks to update contact information in their Federal Student Aid account and to watch inboxes and spam folders for messages from the department. For repayment-plan changes you may need to consolidate loans or enroll in automatic payments to meet eligibility requirements.

Step 4, submit the application or follow program-specific next steps. The department opened the public forgiveness application on its student aid portal and said it would make a paper application available for those who can't apply online. Some borrowers were identified automatically from IRS data and were given the option to accept or opt out of relief without filing. For post-class or settlement-related applicants, the department sent discharge notices to eligible applicants and handled refunds and credit reporting updates as the settlement terms required.

For auto-pay interest incentives, borrowers must enroll in automatic payments or take the other actions outlined in the department guidance before benefits begin.

Step 5, know what to expect after you apply. The public application guidance indicated departmental review would follow submission, but processing times varied. In settlement tracks, the department issued notices to groups of eligible borrowers and provided instructions for refunds and account corrections under the settlement terms. For repayment incentives such as an interest-rate reduction, benefits begin only after the borrower meets the stated enrollment conditions and any temporary timeline the department announced.

There have been mixed accounts around timing and availability. CNBC reported the public forgiveness application went live on Oct. 17 and that borrowers would have until Dec. 31, 2023 to apply, saying many could complete the form in minutes and that about eight million people were identified as automatically eligible. CNBC later reported that court challenges led to an injunction and the department stopped accepting applications pending litigation, illustrating how the program moved through different stages in public reporting. Separately, settlement-related discharges proceeded on a parallel track, with the department sending notices to post-class applicants and following the settlement's timelines.

If you are unsure which path applies, sign in to your Federal Student Aid account and confirm your contact information, check for messages, and look for program-specific portals or forms. One concrete next step is to use the department's online application if you seek mass forgiveness, or watch your account and email if you filed a borrower-defense claim and may be eligible under a settlement.

Related Articles

• Japan quintuples visa fees to 15,000 yen

The increase will hit every foreign national who currently needs a pre-departure visa to enter Japan, including short-stay tourists, business travelers and other non-visa-exempt visitors. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs framed the revision as catching up for decades of inflation and exchange-rate changes dating back to 1978, a period during which the yen has weakened to multi-decade lows. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the revision reflects those inflation and currency shifts and noted that authorities don't expect an immediate drop in inbound tourism as a result.

Japan recorded a strong post-pandemic rebound in visitors, with reporting that last year a record 42.7 million international tourists arrived. The government appears to view the fee update as a way to reset a long-stale statutory schedule while passenger volumes recover to pre-pandemic and record levels.

Part of a larger immigration fee overhaul

The visa fee change sits alongside broader legislative moves affecting immigration-related charges. In May, the Upper House enacted a bill that raises statutory caps for certain residency-related fees, and the government has signaled larger potential increases for charges tied to residency applications, status changes and extensions. One report states the statutory upper limit for permanent residency applications will be raised to 300,000 yen from the current 10,000 yen, and that fees to change residency status or extend a period of stay could rise to as much as 100,000 yen, up from 10,000 yen.

Another account describes different proposed ranges, including permanent residency fees rising to 200,000 yen and status-change fees rising to about 70,000 yen, and lists several figures for residency-related charges not reported elsewhere. Those differing figures likely reflect evolving proposals or separate draft measures; the government hasn't published a single consolidated fee schedule beyond the visa fee revisions.

Officials have also sketched possible programme uses for additional revenue, including immigration administration and language education, but those plans remain at the proposal stage. The cabinet-approved ordinance covers the visa application fees; further implementing details tied to the revised statutory limits are expected as the legislative changes move toward execution.

Operationally, Japan is expanding digital options for entry. The country already operates an eVISA system for some travelers, and one report describes a planned electronic travel authorization system called JESTA that's expected in fiscal year 2028 to cover certain visa-exempt visitors.

Authorities haven't yet issued separate guidance about whether eVISA submissions will be collected in local currency or treated differently from paper applications.

The timing of the fee change is clear: applications submitted on or after July 1, 2026 will be charged the new amounts. The cabinet approved the ordinance on June 19, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published preparatory material this spring noting that statutory fee levels had not been updated since 1978.

Reporting also highlights gaps and single-source details. Coverage noting that India benefits from a longstanding reciprocal visa-fee arrangement that has left a nominal Rs 500 charge in place appears in one outlet and hasn't been confirmed across other pieces reviewed. Similarly, the projected JESTA launch window and questions about how the new visa fees will apply to eVISA submissions are described in one source and haven't been clarified in separate official guidance.

For travelers and businesses, the change means higher upfront costs for short-term visits and repeat-entry business travel. Travel agents, corporate travel planners and consulates will need to update published fee schedules and client advisories ahead of the July 1 cutoff. The government maintains that the move corrects a statutory price list that has been frozen for nearly five decades and that the revisions are tied to observable shifts in costs and exchange rates since 1978.