DHS caps student visas at four years, ending open-ended student status

On May 5, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security submitted its final rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's department first published the proposed rule on August 28, 2025, in the Federal RegisterFederal RegisterDaily government publication where federal agencies publish proposed rules, final rules, and official notices.Key ConceptFederal RegisterDaily government publication where federal agencies publish proposed rules, final rules, and official notices.Open conceptBookmark, launching a public comment period that received nearly 22,000 submissions from universities, students, immigration attorneys, and education organizations. The OMB review is the final administrative step before Federal Register publication and a 60-day countdown to implementation.\n\nThe rule drew opposition from NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and more than 250 university immigration offices, who argued it would impose massive administrative burdens without meaningful security gains. Supporters, including the Center for Immigration Studies, argued that fixed admission periods would improve federal tracking of compliance and reduce overstay risk.

Under the current duration of statusDuration of StatusA visa admission category that allows foreign students and exchange visitors to stay in the United States as long as they maintain enrollment or program participation, with no fixed expiration date.Key ConceptDuration of StatusA visa admission category that allows foreign students and exchange visitors to stay in the United States as long as they maintain enrollment or program participation, with no fixed expiration date.Open conceptBookmark (D/S) system, F-1 students, J exchange visitors, and I foreign media representatives can remain in the United States for as long as they maintain their program enrollment, with no hard expiration date on their I-94 arrival record. DHS established D/S in 1952 to accommodate academic programs with variable lengths, and it has served as the legal baseline for student and exchange visitor stays for more than 70 years. A student admitted under D/S has no countdown clock on their visa stay, only the requirement to maintain enrollment in an authorized program.

The existing Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) already tracks whether international students are actively enrolled, with ICE's SEVP unit notifying institutions of any compliance gaps. Critics including immigration law professors argued the existing SEVIS system already provides robust real-time tracking and that D/S terminations have a higher compliance rate than fixed-period visa holders.

The final rule would replace D/S with fixed admission periods of up to four years for F and J nonimmigrants, with a 24-month maximum for language programs. Students who need more time would file Form I-539 with USCIS, pay the applicable filing fee, provide biometrics, and wait for agency adjudication before their current period expires. Immigration law firm Fragomen estimated that hundreds of thousands of extension applications would be filed annually, adding to an already backlogged USCIS caseload.

Joseph Edlow, confirmed as USCIS Director by the Senate 52-47 in July 2025, would oversee rule implementation. Edlow previously served as USCIS Acting Director during Trump's first term and has prioritized enforcement-centric reforms. The practical challenge for USCIS is significant: the agency processes roughly 800,000 student-related benefit requests annually, and extension applications would substantially increase that workload.

The 60-day grace period after program completion, which currently allows F-1 students to remain in the United States to prepare for departure, seek OPT authorization, transfer programs, or change status, would shrink to 30 days. Optional Practical Training applications can take weeks to process, and reducing the grace period compresses the window for students applying after graduation. The American Immigration Lawyers Association warned that the halved grace period would lead to more inadvertent status violations.

For J exchange visitors, the same compressed timeline applies. Many J-1 holders are professors, researchers, and au pairs whose program lengths are set by host institutions and can't easily be completed within four years. Exchange visitor programs sponsored by the State Department could face redesign if the rule is finalized as proposed.

DHS justified the rule on national security grounds, arguing that the D/S system creates opportunities for fraud and makes it harder to track whether students are maintaining program enrollment. Between 2015 and 2019, more than 6,000 SEVIS records were terminated for students whose programs had ended but who remained in the United States. Critics pointed out that SEVIS terminations represent a functioning compliance system, not evidence that D/S fails.

The rule's text doesn't create a new criminal penalty for overstaying a fixed period, but it would make students whose USCIS extension applications are denied immediately out of status, with potential visa bars as a consequence. Immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta called the rule a bureaucratic tripwire for students who run into USCIS processing delays through no fault of their own.

An estimated 1.1 million international students were enrolled in U.S. higher education institutions in the 2024-25 academic year, contributing an estimated $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy according to NAFSA. More than 200,000 of those students are Chinese nationals, and another 330,000 are from India. Universities that depend on international student tuition revenue warned that the rule could deter foreign students from choosing U.S. institutions over alternatives in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The economic stakes extend beyond tuition. International students disproportionately concentrate in STEM graduate programs, where they represent 57% of master's degree recipients and 44% of doctoral degree recipients according to the National Science Foundation. Many of these graduates go on to found U.S. companies or fill critical technical workforce gaps.

The rule's submission to OMB follows a broader pattern of administrative pressure on international students under the Trump administration. In spring 2025, ICE terminated thousands of SEVIS records for F-1 students, claiming authority under a broad reading of immigration regulations, until federal courts in multiple circuits blocked the terminations. This rulemaking pursues a formal rule change that would give DHS clear legal authority to impose fixed periods through the notice-and-comment process.

The Administrative Procedure ActAdministrative Procedure Act1946 law governing how federal agencies develop regulations and make decisions through rulemaking and adjudication.Key ConceptAdministrative Procedure Act1946 law governing how federal agencies develop regulations and make decisions through rulemaking and adjudication.Open conceptBookmark requires DHS to respond to the 200,000+ comments received before finalizing the rule, and the final text must be a logical outgrowth of the proposed rule. Several law school immigration clinics have flagged that the shorter grace period and stricter language program caps were not explicitly proposed in the August 2025 NPRM and could face APA challenges.

The OMB review process, conducted by OIRA, typically takes 90 days for major rules but can be expedited at the administration's request. Mark Paoletta, serving as OIRA's acting administrator since late 2025, oversees the review. If OIRA approves the rule without substantive revision, DHS will publish it in the Federal Register, triggering a 60-day countdown to implementation.

Legal challenges are widely anticipated. The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Law Center, and several university-affiliated legal clinics have signaled they will seek injunctive relief arguing the rule violates the APA by inadequately responding to public comments and the Due Process Clause by stripping students of a longstanding reliance interest.

The rule's submission to OMB follows a broader pattern of administrative pressure on international students under the Trump administration. In spring 2025, ICE terminated thousands of SEVIS records for F-1 students, claiming authority under a broad reading of immigration regulations, until federal courts in multiple circuits blocked the terminations. This rulemaking pursues a formal rule change that would give DHS clear legal authority to impose fixed periods through the notice-and-comment process.\n\nThe Administrative Procedure Act requires DHS to respond to the nearly 22,000 comments received before finalizing the rule, and the final text must be a logical outgrowth of the proposed rule. Several law school immigration clinics have flagged that the shorter grace period and stricter language program caps were not explicitly proposed in the August 2025 NPRM and could face APA challenges.