Fulbright U.S. Student Program

Applicants must be citizens or nationals of the United States of America at the time of the application deadline. Permanent residents are not eligible. Please review the specific Award Description in relation to the eligibility of dual citizens applying to their country of additional citizenship.
Applicants must have a conferred bachelor's degree or equivalent before the start of the grant period.
This includes applicants who are enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program and will graduate or have their degree conferred prior to the grant start date of their chosen award
In the creative and performing arts fields, four years of professional training and/or experience meets the basic eligibility requirement. If you are an Arts applicant and do not hold a bachelor's degree, please email fbstudent@iie.org with your professional experience and educational history to confirm eligibility before beginning an application.
Applicants must meet the language requirements of the award to which they are applying and demonstrate sufficient competency to complete their project and adjust to life in the host country. Please refer to the Award Description for award-specific language requirements.
Applicants may hold a J.D. at the time of application.
Doctors of Medicine may receive grants for advanced academic study, but not for internships or residencies. Scholars with an M.D. degree who have completed their formal postgraduate training and propose attachment to a hospital or clinic for the purpose of independent or collaborative research should apply to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.
Grants shall not authorize activity for which a license to practice medicine or nursing is required. The Fulbright Program cannot authorize proposals for medical research that involves clinical training, patient care or patient contact.
Preferred Qualifications
In general, there is a program preference for those who have not previously held a Fulbright grant. For the 2027-2028 competition, 2026-2027, 2025-2026, and 2024-2025 participants will be at a competitive disadvantage, but are still eligible to apply, provided they continue to meet all other eligibility requirements of the program and their chosen award.
Fulbright participants whose programs in the Middle East were suspended in Spring 2026 will not be disadvantaged if they reapply for the 2027–2028 competition.
Preference will be given to applicants whose higher education was undertaken primarily at educational institutions in the United States. Undergraduate study abroad experiences, either in the chosen host country or elsewhere, will not be considered a disadvantage. Please note that if you received your baccalaureate degree from a non-U.S. institution, this does count as time spent abroad.
Candidates who have not resided or studied in the country to which they are applying for more than six months (not counting undergraduate study abroad) are preferred.
Duty abroad in the Armed Forces of the United States is not considered disqualifying within the meaning of this section.
Candidates who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States will be given preference, provided their qualifications are approximately equivalent to those of other candidates.
For most programs, applicants who have had extensive, recent previous experience in the host country are at a competitive disadvantage but are still eligible to apply.
For this section, spending six or more months in the host country (outside of an undergraduate study abroad program) is considered extensive and recent experience.