WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration is pushing ahead with a sweeping immigration rule that would end the long-standing open-ended stay for international students and foreign journalists in the United States, replacing it with strict fixed time limits.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published a proposed regulation titled “Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media”, covering F-1 academic students, J-1 exchange visitors and I-visa holders working for foreign media outlets.Under the proposal, students and exchange visitors would be admitted only until the official end date of their program, for a maximum of four years, while foreign journalists would face much shorter caps – up to 240 days, and in the case of Chinese nationals on I visas, just 90 days, with the option to apply for extensions.
Administration officials have signaled they want the rule finalized quickly after the public-comment process, which has just closed, raising expectations among supporters that it could be made effective as early as the end of this month. Universities, media organizations and immigration lawyers, however, warn that even on an accelerated timetable DHS must still review tens of thousands of comments before publishing a final rule with an official effective date.—What the New Limits Would DoFor decades, most F, J and I visa holders have been admitted for “duration of status” (D/S) – allowed to remain in the US as long as they maintain their academic, exchange or media program in good standing, without a fixed end date on their I-94 record.
The proposed rule would end that system and instead:Cap admission for F-1 and J-1 at:The program end date or four years, whichever is shorter, plus a 30-day grace period.Require students and scholars who need more time to file Form I-539 with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and pay additional fees to extend their stay.Impose tight limits on I-visa foreign journalists:Up to 240 days of authorized stay in most cases.Up to 90 days for those holding passports from the People’s Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao SAR passport holders).Require media outlets to request extensions if assignments run longer.Change how “unlawful presence” is counted:F, J and I visa holders would generally start accruing unlawful presence the day their fixed admission period expires, exposing them more quickly to 3- and 10-year re-entry bans if they overstay.According to government data cited in the proposal, the US hosted about 1.6 million international students on F visas, 355,000 J-visa exchange visitors and around 13,000 foreign media workers on I visas in the last fiscal year, underscoring the potential scale of the impact.-
Universities Warn of “Unworkable” SystemHigher-education groups, which have spent months mobilizing against the rule, say the fixed-term system would create rolling uncertainty for students and bury both universities and USCIS under new paperwork.In formal comments to DHS, organizations represented by the American Council on Education called the proposed time limit “devastating” for academic mobility and warned it would be “unworkable for the majority of students”, especially those in longer degree programs or research tracks that routinely stretch beyond four years.Universities also fear that forcing students to file repeated extension applications with USCIS will:Increase the risk that minor bureaucratic delays will push otherwise law-abiding students out of status.Discourage talented applicants from choosing US institutions over competitors in Canada, the UK and Australia.Divert staff and financial resources from academics to immigration compliance.Some campus international offices, including those at Yale, the University of Connecticut and the University of California system, have held town halls warning students that if the rule is finalized as written, staying in the US beyond four years will no longer be automatic, even for standard degrees.
Foreign Media See New Press-Freedom RisksPress-freedom advocates and foreign news organizations say the sharp cuts to I-visa validity – especially the 90-day cap for Chinese journalists – look less like routine immigration housekeeping and more like a political tool against critical reporting.Reuters reported that the administration frames the move as part of a broader effort to “better monitor and oversee” foreign media and reduce visa overstays, reviving a similar proposal first floated at the end of Trump’s first term in 2020 and shelved by the Biden administration in 2021.Media organizations counter that:90-day assignments are unrealistic for in-depth investigative or regional reporting.Frequent renewals give the government more leverage over outlets whose coverage it dislikes.
The rule could invite retaliation against US journalists abroad.
Business and industry groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce, have also weighed in, warning DHS that the rule will hurt America’s reputation as a hub for education, research and open information.—A Second Attempt at an Old IdeaThis is not the first time a US administration has tried to end “duration of status.” A nearly identical rule was proposed in late 2020, but the incoming Biden administration withdrew it in 2021 after a wave of opposition from universities, advocacy groups and some lawmakers.In August 2025, DHS resurrected the idea in a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, triggering another intense comment period. More than 21,000 public comments have been submitted, from major universities and media houses to individual students and reporters worried they may be forced to abandon their studies or careers mid-stream if an extension is delayed or denied.Members of Congress have also entered the fight. In a September 29 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a group of lawmakers urged DHS to drop the proposal, arguing that the existing duration-of-status system has functioned for decades without evidence of widespread abuse and that the new regime would “shift enormous burdens” onto students, institutions and USCIS itself.
What Happens Next For now, the rule remains at the proposal stage. DHS must analyze the public comments, decide whether to revise the text and then publish a final rule in the Federal Register with a specific effective date, which by law must be at least 30 days after publication in most cases.Immigration attorneys say that if the administration moves aggressively, it could technically set an effective date toward the end of this year or early next year, but there is no official DHS timetable so far. Institutions are preparing contingency plans while continuing to tell current students and journalists that their status remains unchanged unless and until a final rule is issued.If the rule is finalized on the schedule that administration allies are hoping for – with an effective date around the end of this month – it would mark one of the most consequential shifts in legal immigration policy in years, and would immediately reshape how hundreds of thousands of students, scholars and journalists plan their lives in the United States.
