While the end of the semester at Boston College often brings excitement over holiday plans and post-exam relief, many international students approach breaks with a mix of anxiety and uncertainty.

For Mariano Ricardo Perez, MCAS ’26, an international student from Peru, and others who cannot easily return home, the question of where to go once residence halls close looms large.

“I [chose] to stay here because my country was going through political turmoil in 2021, 2022,” said Perez, noting that political unrest in his home country played a major role in his choice to study in the United States. “Most of my friends were going abroad and I came abroad as well.”

Perez said he does not travel home to Peru for break and hasn’t been back in nearly two years. Instead, he travels with friends.

“For [one] break, I stayed with one friend in Connecticut,” Perez said. “Another time, New York. I think this time, I’m going with one friend to Puerto Rico.”

Over the past 10 months, students also have to contend with Trump-era changes to the student visa process and travel bans affecting certain countries. Even without these policy changes, financial constraints and housing issues make the choice between visiting home during school breaks or staying in the United States a difficult one for international students.

In an era of ever-shifting policy, recent immigration regulations have added a new layer of anxiety for many international students. Evolving visa rules and political tensions in students’ home countries can influence whether they feel safe leaving and re-entering the United States.

Claire Du, CSOM ’26, an international student, said immigration policy is a frequent topic among her peers from China.

“I think this is a conversation that a lot of international Chinese always talk about,” Du said. “We have a group chat where [we] post unfortunate cases of a student who got denied at border control. It may be because they had a picture of them with like any slightly military-related stuff—a lot of horror stories like that.”

The issue feels especially pressing for Chinese international students whose families have political affiliations in China, Du added. She said she has noticed growing tension and hesitation among some students about returning home.

“Even though those are only very few cases, I think it’s just a very high-stakes situation where you don’t want to risk it,” Du said.

Perez said his parents urged him to stay cautious amid political tensions in the United States.

“They’re like, ‘Mariano, I know there’s a bunch of political stuff going in America,’” Perez said. “Like, ‘Don’t make any comments about nothing because you can get targeted.’”

Ethan Shen, MCAS ’26, an international student from Beijing, China, said uncertainty around U.S. visa policies often affects students’ decisions about whether to travel.

Shen noted that one of his friends had scrapped plans to go home after hearing about potential visa policy changes.

“I have a friend who went to BC for undergrad, now he’s a graduate student at Northeastern,” Shen said. “He was planning on going back home in June, but all of a sudden he saw the news, and he just canceled his flight and chose not to go back home.”

For many international students, deciding whether to remain in the United States or return home during academic breaks is rarely simple. Travel costs rack up quickly, especially during the holiday season. 

“A lot of my international friends are kind of going through that right now,” Du said. “For them, the holiday is sort of a stress factor. They not only have to think about finals, they have to think about, ‘Where am I going to stay for break?’ because you get kicked out of campus the second [after] your finals.”

But the choice to fly home was not made solely out of emotion, Du said. Aside from seeing her family, she decided to return to China for the winter break because of the costs associated with staying in Boston.

“There’s no housing, and subletting in Boston is very expensive,” Du said. “It’s way more expensive than the tickets back home. So I think just from an economic perspective, going back home is the more feasible option.”

For other students, though, the long, expensive journey means traveling home for certain breaks—even winter break—isn’t always worth the hassle.

“Flights back to Asia are super, super long, and you have to deal with the whole jet lag,” Du said. “Three weeks of break is really not enough time for that kind of travel. If I could, I would only save my travel back home for summer break.”

Aishling Zhou, LSEHD ’29, an international student from China, plans to travel back to Beijing for her first break between semesters.

Although the University does not offer international students housing during breaks, Zhou said it sponsors events for students to meet each other and form a community, such as a Thanksgiving dinner.

“There are some events held by the international assistant,” Zhou said. “Those are really nice. I go to every single one of them. For Halloween, I went to the pumpkin cutting event. I loved that. It was so fun.”

For some students, the choice to travel is less about preference and more about necessity. Without a place to stay in the United States, going home becomes the only viable option. 

Andrew Kang, MCAS ’26, was born in the United States but raised in Korea and holds dual citizenship. For his first two years of college, Kang went home to Korea for every break.

Although Kang attended high school in the United States and stayed with a host family, he said he still feels more comfortable traveling home to Korea during breaks because he no longer has anyone in the United States to stay with.

“Freshman and sophomore year, I actually went back to Korea,” Kang said. “And then the same for the summers. I think knowing the fact that I can’t stay sort of forces my hand. Even if I was to, say, go back to Buffalo, I wouldn’t, because they don’t have a room for me anymore.”

At the end of each semester, students must move out of their residence halls once they have completed their final exams, according to the BC conditions for residency, leaving students who choose to stay in the U.S. to sublet or make plans to stay with friends.

Shen, who hasn’t returned home to Beijing since summer 2024, said he sublets a room in an apartment every break.

“I think it would be better if the school could let us stay somewhere at least,” Shen said. “Maybe [ResLife] could have all the people who are staying over the winter in one dorm.” 

Kang agreed that offering housing to international students would be helpful. Students could work for the University in exchange for free housing during the breaks, he added.

“I think having a [housing] option would be pretty nice,” Kang said. “I know BC has summer housing for students who are doing something with BC. I know that is an option. I think something similar to that that could be offered for the winter would be great.”

According to Perez, some students would like to stay in the United States during breaks but are not able to plan accommodations in time.

“There are people that would prefer staying and have problems of logistics and whatnot,” Perez said. “ResLife can sometimes be very, ‘Oh, you need to get out right now, not tomorrow.’”

Perez believes that if BC offered housing for students, it could soothe anxieties of those deciding whether to stay in the United States during breaks. 

“There’s still a bit of uncertainty, and I think having that backup—or having the option for me to stay—would be pretty comforting,” Kang said.

Since that isn’t currently an option, Shen recommends that students seeking accommodation for breaks reach out to off-campus students for temporary subletting.

“I think definitely, [students] can reach out to people for subletting, because a lot of people—well, I think most people—they’ll go home for breaks,” Shen said. “But I’m not sure about this if more people are not going home because of visa and immigration issues, I think it will be harder for subletting.”

For Shen, the shifting landscape around immigration has made planning for the future increasingly difficult.

“I think there’s definitely a lot of uncertainty,” Shen said. “I want to go to grad school in the U.S., but because there are a lot of uncertainties considering the visa and immigration policies, it’s definitely a lot harder than before to stay in the U.S.”