‘When people ask, “What do you want prayer for?” I’m like, “Visa.”’

Noli Alithia Pakka graduated with a master’s degree in biomedical science from UW-Milwaukee in spring of 2025 after earning a bachelor’s degree in India. While preparing to apply to dental school, she is currently an intern at Marquette University’s School of Dentistry. As an international student, she is directly affected by the Trump administration’s changes to visa policies. Every day, she is worried about its unpredictable actions and how it will affect her future education in America.

Stephanie Serrano: Is there any action or change done by the Trump administration in its first year that sticks out to you the most?

Noli Alithia Pakka: There’s a very recent change regarding the H-1B visa. Once you are done with your studies as an international student, and you want to continue working in the U.S., there is a two-year study and then two years of practical training experience (OPT). Once you are done with that OPT, you switch to the H-1B visa. In the future, I have to transition into that visa, which means I have to find a company or a university that would sponsor it. The fee used to be about $5,000 to 7,000 in tax to hire each employee. The huge change is that instead of that, sponsors now owe $100,000 per person.

But that’s not all, it’s a lottery system. Companies only have about $50,000 per year. They cannot offer more than their budget to sponsor employee visas. So, you submit your job offer in a lottery and then they pick winners. If you get picked, then you’re lucky. If you don’t get picked, then you’re done. Better luck next time, I guess. Otherwise, once your visa is done, you have to go back to your country.

This means that the administration doesn’t want any foreign people to be hired. It’s indirectly stating, “Unless you are a NASA scientist, we don’t want you here.”

The reality of the situation is, because of the competition, some students are paying these fees themselves. The employee will say, “You have to pay the fee, we are not paying, but we can hire you.” Obviously, you want to have that position so you can stay. The international employees would pay the fee to the employer that then pays it to whatever institution they need to pay.

That’s the huge impact right now. When my turn comes, I don’t know what rules will be in place. If Trump wants some insane amount of money to be paid to the government, instead of that, I would rather go back to my own country again and invest that money somewhere else.

Serrano: Last Spring semester, there was a big conversation at UW-Milwaukee about issues international students were having regarding their visas. What was going on?

Pakka: What had happened was the number of visas granted to students from India, China and a couple East Asian countries went down a lot. The Trump administration restricted the amount of visas students could get.

After graduation, I have one year to work and gain some experience with OPT. For STEM programs, there are three years of OPT, but Trump said that he was going to take away those three years. So, as soon as you are done with your education, you go back to your country. That did not sit well with a lot of people. You spend thousands of dollars on an education so you want to get some experience afterwards so you can include it on your resume and get a better job.

Also, a lot of visas got rejected this year too. The visa process is not cheap either. You have to spend about $300 on the application and on travel for two interviews. This is separate from school applications and other fees. It’s basically like a $1,000 investment. Imagine going through that whole process just to get rejected.

When I attended the orientation in 2023, there were about 400 international students, but for the 2025 Fall semester, there were only 200 out of the entire university.

Serrano: Do you live day-by-day with any worry?

Pakka: The worry is constant. You’re always on the edge. When people ask, “What do you want prayer for?” I’m like, “Visa.” That’s the first thing I think of because you never know what’s going to happen.

People come to the U.S. with an idea of what they want for a career, but suddenly, everything’s changing so fast. You think, “I don’t know if I will have to go back to India tomorrow.” My friends and people I know that have the H-1B visa have canceled going back to India even though they have their own siblings’ weddings. One of my friends’ sisters is getting married and he was so excited to go back home for it. But, because of this whole mess of an administration, he’s like, “I can’t risk it” in case they don’t let him back in.

People who have lived in the U.S. for years and have a job could leave the country and possibly not be allowed to return. Then, you don’t have a job here, you don’t have a job in India. You get lost in between.

Serrano: Especially for people completing an education that takes a long time. Becoming a dentist is not a quick endeavor. A five-year ban from the U.S. would create a huge halt in their studies.

Pakka: That is why I haven’t gone back home since I’ve been here. I don’t want to risk it. I came in the fall of 2023 to study at UWM and ever since then, I haven’t gone back.