Department of Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2016 Entry/Exit Overstay Report Provides Data on Student Visa Overstays

On May 22, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its Fiscal Year 2016 Entry/Exit Overstay Report that provides numbers and country-specific breakdowns for individuals who overstayed their U.S. visas during FY2016. For the first time, the report includes data on student travelers (F, M, and J visa categories). According to DHS,

“identifying overstays is important for national security, public safety, immigration enforcement, and processing applications for immigration benefits.”

DHS defines an overstay as an “immigrant who was lawfully admitted to the United States for an authorized period, but remained in the United States beyond his or her lawful period of admission.” There are two categories of overstays:

• Individuals for whom no departure has been recorded (Suspected in-country overstay)
• Individuals whose departure has been recorded after their lawfully periods of admission expired (Out-of-country overstays)

Of the total 50,437,278 “in-scope” nonimmigrants who had been admitted to the U.S. and were expected to depart in FY2016, 98.53 percent returned to their home countries, the DHS report shows. 1.47 percent (739,478 individuals) were overstays. The DHS report considers the following categories of nonimmigrant admissions as “in-scope”: temporary workers and families (temporary workers and trainees, intracompany transferees, treaty traders and investors, representatives of foreign information media), students, exchange visitors, temporary visitors for pleasure, temporary visitors for business, and other nonimmigrant classes of admission.”Specific to student visas, the DHS report shows the following:

• Total number of students on F, M, and J visa classes of admission in FY2016: 1,457,556*
• 2.81 percent suspected in-country overstay rate, 5.48 percent total overstay rate among student visa holders
• 975,046 F visa holders: 2.99 percent suspected in-country overstay rate (6.19 percent total overstay rate)
• 13,963 M visa holders: 2.94 percent suspected in-country overstay rate (11.6 percent total overstay rate)
• 468,547 J visa holders: 2.42 percent suspected in-country overstay rate (3.8 percent total overstay rate)

 *This overall student visa number does not include F/M/J classes of admissions for students with Canadian or Mexican citizenship. They are listed separately in the report (see Table 6).