US Caps Length of Student Visas, Eliminates ‘Duration of Status’

The Department of Homeland Security finalized its plans last week to overhaul immigration rules for international students, ending the decades-old “duration of status” system that gave students the flexibility to stay for as long as it took them to complete their studies.

DHS’s final rule, published July 17, will take effect Sept. 15 and applies to F student visas, J exchange visitor visas, and I visas for foreign journalists. Instead of allowing these visa holders to remain in the US for the duration of their academic program or journalistic assignment, DHS will now admit individuals for a fixed period of time tied to their program length and capped at four years.

Universities and scientific organizations warn that removing the duration of status system will create new administrative hurdles for international students and may deter them from choosing to pursue their studies in the US. The changes will have a significant impact on students pursuing advanced degrees, as doctoral and postdoctoral programs can take much longer than four years to complete. Under the new rules, students who need more time to complete their programs will have to apply and pay for a formal extension of stay from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, or leave the country and obtain a new visa abroad before returning, neither of which is guaranteed.

DHS says the changes will restore federal oversight over immigration decisions that had been delegated to university officials, closing what it describes as an immigration loophole.
“For decades, foreign students have been admitted into the US indefinitely, allowing thousands to abuse our immigration system by perpetually enrolling in courses to avoid having to leave,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in an online statement.

DHS first proposed eliminating the duration of status rule during Trump’s first term, but the proposal was withdrawn during the Biden administration. DHS reintroduced the changes in an August 2025 proposed rule. During the public comment period, many universities, medical schools, scientific societies, immigration advocates, and lawyers argued that the proposal would disproportionately affect doctoral students, researchers, and physicians in training whose programs routinely exceed four years.

In its response to public comments, DHS said that the four-year cap is “intended as a law enforcement and screening tool to assess whether a student is maintaining normal academic progress and eligibility for F-1 status,” rather than a mechanism to force students to finish within four years.

A 2025 report by AIP’s statistics team found that about 97% of international students take more than four years to complete their PhD, with a median duration of 6 years for domestic and international students. The National Science Foundation’s 2024 Survey of Earned Doctorates reports that the median time to complete a PhD program across all disciplines is 5.7 years.

After March 18, 2027, students on F-1 visas who seek to transition into optional practical training will have to apply for a separate extension of stay and work authorization, which was not previously required. OPT allows graduates to work in a field related to their studies for up to one year, or three years if enrolled in certain STEM programs.

The final rule also shortens the grace period after completion of a program. Instead of having 60 days to depart the United States or change status after graduation, F-1 students will generally have just 30 days. The regulation will also prevent undergraduate students from changing programs or switching majors during the first year of their studies. Graduate students will be prohibited from changing programs or switching majors altogether. Students who complete a degree in the US will not be allowed to pursue another degree in the US at the same or lower education level. For example, a PhD degree holder could not obtain an F-1 visa for another PhD or any lower-level degree.

Another provision limits enrollment in English-language training programs to two years, reflecting DHS’s concern that these programs have been used to extend students’ stay in the US without progressing toward a degree.

Expected processing delays and increased costs for applicants

Many of the public comments on the proposed rule argued that requiring students to apply extensions of stay would overwhelm the immigration system. In its public response to the comments, DHS acknowledged that extension applications will increase under the new framework and said that processing times are likely to lengthen. However, the agency argued that the largest increase in workload will not occur until roughly 2030, when today’s students begin reaching the end of their 4-year admission period, giving the department sufficient time to expand its processing capacity.

The agency also rejected arguments that it underestimated the financial and administrative burden associated with filing extension requests, stating that many projected costs put forward by commentators were overstated.
NAFSA, a nonprofit membership organization for international education professionals, said the rule created unnecessary uncertainty for international students and would harm the US’s ability to attract global talent – a concern that was echoed by Brookings researchers, who noted that the new regulation gave USCIS the power to stop international students on F-1 visas from engaging in practical training programs after graduation, potentially disrupting the popular OPT immigration pathway for scientists and curtailing the supply of STEM talent to the US workforce.

The Association of American Medical Colleges similarly warned that new immigration hurdles would make it harder for international students to complete their medical degrees and biomedical research programs at a time when the US is already facing a shortage of physicians and increasing competition for talented scientists. Legal analyses published by JD Supra, Ogletree Deakins, and others note that universities will need to identify individuals who may need to file extension of stay applications under the new framework and may need to provide increased advisory support.

Concerns that increasing administrative barriers will discourage talented students from choosing US universities were downplayed by DHS. While the department acknowledged that some decline in international enrollment is possible (though not the rule’s intention), it said the changes are necessary to balance legitimate education opportunities with stronger immigration enforcement through periodic review of students’ eligibility.