Scholarships and Funding for Iranian Students in the USA
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 19, 2026
Part of the guide Scholarships and Funding in the USA by Nationality
Sanctions block the biggest cross-border student loan companies for Iranian nationals, but US universities still admit, fund, and accept tuition from Iranian students, and family remittances for education stay allowed under US rules.
💵 Graduate assistantships and tuition waivers at US research universities do not depend on your nationality.
MPOWER Financing and Prodigy Finance both exclude Iran from their eligible countries.
Fulbright's Foreign Student Program runs through a US embassy or binational commission, and Iran has neither.
OFAC General License G keeps tuition payments, scholarships, and academic exchanges with Iran open despite broader sanctions.
What US sanctions do and do not block
Broad US sanctions on Iran leave a specific carve-out for education. Under OFAC General License G , US academic institutions are allowed to process your application, accept your tuition and fees, run academic exchange agreements with Iranian universities, and give you a scholarship. Separately, a personal remittance license covers money a family member outside Iran sends you for tuition, fees, books, and living costs.
What sanctions do block is most direct banking between Iran and the United States. Iranian banks generally lack correspondent relationships with US banks, so tuition payments and stipends usually route through a relative, sponsor, or account outside Iran rather than a direct wire from an Iranian bank.
US university aid open to Iranian applicants
Graduate assistantships: many US research universities fund master's and PhD students with a tuition waiver plus a monthly stipend in exchange for teaching or research work, open to admitted students regardless of nationality.
Merit scholarships: some universities award entering undergraduates scholarship money based on academic record, without a separate application beyond admission.
Departmental funding: individual departments, especially in engineering and the sciences, sometimes fund incoming graduate students directly through faculty research grants.
Check each school's international admissions and financial aid pages directly, since funding rules and amounts differ by university and by year.
Options that do not work for Iranian nationals
MPOWER Financing and Prodigy Finance , two of the largest cross-border student loan companies, both list Iran as an ineligible country under sanctions compliance rules. Do not count on a private international student loan as a funding source.
The Fulbright Foreign Student Program runs through a binational commission or US embassy in each participating country. The US has no embassy in Iran and no binational Fulbright commission there, so degree-seeking Fulbright funding through the standard country process is not available the way it is for most other countries. Confirm current status directly on the Fulbright site rather than assuming either way.
Home-country and third-country routes
Employer sponsorship: if you work for an Iranian or multinational company, ask whether it sponsors graduate study abroad in exchange for a return-to-work commitment.
Family and sponsor support: the most common funding source for Iranian students, moved under the personal remittance rules described above.
Third-country accounts: some students use an account in a country with normal banking ties to the US, through a relative or legal residency status, to simplify tuition payments.
How to ask about aid without wasting time
Email the graduate department directly for PhD and research master's programs, not just the general financial aid office, since departmental funding decisions often sit with faculty.
Ask whether an assistantship offer holds for your full program length or renews year to year based on performance.
Confirm whether a scholarship or waiver requires a specific visa status or physical presence on campus by a set date, given the current entry suspension.
Before you commit money to any plan
As of August 2026, F-1 visa issuance for Iranian nationals is suspended under Presidential Proclamation 10998 . Lining up funding is still worth doing, since admission and aid offers commonly hold or defer, but check your visa options at travel.state.gov before you commit money to deposits or travel.