How visa pause has kept dozens of international students out of class at this university

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Kofi, an international student from Ghana, said he’s excited to live on Calvin University’s peaceful West Michigan campus this fall.

Now a junior, he was drawn to the university’s science programming and financial aid offerings, and wanted to attend the same private Christian liberal arts university his brother graduated from in 2023.

But in an interview posted by Calvin on YouTube, where the trilingual computer science major is only identified by his first name, Kofi said the process to get here was a long one. He spent 11 months on his latest visa application.

After his first visa was rejected, he said he got help from Calvin with the second one to get approved. He’s one of 150 students being welcomed from outside the U.S. to the university this fall.

But dozens