More than 2,100 people who first entered the United States as F-1 students between 2000 and 2010 were still in active F-1 status as of April 6, 2025. Some had entered the student system over 20 years ago.
President Donald Trump's administration looked at a temporary immigration category without a fixed federal end date and decided it needed one. Beginning Sept. 15, F-1 students will generally be admitted for the length of their academic program, up to four years at a time.
From the College Fix:
Set to go into effect on Sept. 15, the “duration of status” rule will now set a fixed, four-year limit on student visas or shorter, depending on the normal length of the program. Prior to this change, students could stay here as long as they were enrolled in school.
The program ensures temporary visas remain “just that: temporary, with a fixed end date,” according to Ira Mehlman.
The spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform praised the move in emailed comments to The Fix.
“The new policy makes it clear to everyone up front — the applicant, the university and the government — that the terms of entry are for a specific purpose, for a specific duration, and that when those have been fulfilled the student must depart the country,” he said.
The policy “will also end the practice of endlessly enrolling in classes beyond completion solely for the purpose of extending a student visa.”
Under this rule, the American government, and not “universities which often have a financial interest in having a foreign student remain,” will have the say in case-by-case visa extensions for students, Mehlman said.
Duration of status for certain classes of visa was first implemented in 1978 and has roughly remained consistent since then. However, a 2020 rule proposed by the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump Administration to end indefinite stays was withdrawn in 2021, under the Biden administration.
The Center for Immigration Studies submitted a comment in support of the rule, highlighting “pay-to-stay fraud” where school officials say students are still enrolled “in return for cash payments.”
Technically, the rule changes the authorized period of admission in F-1 status, rather than simply changing the expiration date printed on a visa.
The old "duration of status" system allowed students to remain while they continued meeting the requirements of their academic status. It was convenient, but it also allowed temporary status to continue without a fresh USCIS extension decision simply because the student remained properly enrolled and made the required academic progress.
A student visa exists for studying, and legitimate foreign students shouldn't be punished because a doctorate takes five or six years. Difficult research, illness, or circumstances beyond a student's control can delay graduation.
The new system allows extensions for compelling academic reasons, documented illness or medical conditions, and other circumstances outside the student's control.
From DHS:
F students will be admitted to the United States for a fixed period of time, up to the length of the program of study listed on their Form I-20, not to exceed four years, plus a 30-day period for arrival and an additional 30-day period for departure.
However, students enrolled in certain programs of study should understand the following limitations on their period of admission to the United States:
- Students engaged in English language training programs are restricted to a 24-month period of admission, plus an additional 30-day period to prepare for departure.
- Students enrolled in public high schools, which may also include a charter school or other similar school funded by U.S. taxpayers, are limited to an aggregate of no more than 12 months to complete their course of study, including any school breaks and annual vacation.
- Border commuter students will continue to be admitted with a fixed date of admission.
Students will continue to receive a 30-day period prior to the Program Start Date listed on their Form I-20 to arrive in the United States. However, students now have a 30-day period to prepare for departure or otherwise seek to obtain lawful status to remain in the United States following their Program End Date or post completion OPT or STEM OPT extension.
So the four-year limit doesn't order every student to finish a degree in four years or leave. It creates a checkpoint where someone who needs additional time must explain why and receive federal approval.
Higher education groups have a fair objection; many doctoral programs routinely run longer than four years, and they warn that another extension process could bring added paperwork, processing delays, and uncertainty.
From the College Fix:
The American Council on Education said that the new rule would “hurt [the] global talent pipeline,” “ignore academic realities,” and create “unnecessary bureaucracy.”
The group declined to offer new comments in response to a College Fix question about what limits it would support on student visas. A spokesman directed The Fix to its statement and a report from the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers.
The adviser group likewise did not respond to multiple emailed responses for comment in the past several weeks asking about any limits it would support. The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education similarly did not respond to requests for comment.
The American Immigration Council wrote in a blog that the new rule will create “additional red tape and costs,” and “serve to drive even more students away,” while the end to duration of status for foreign journalists and media “will send the message that the United States is not the country it once was.” It did not respond to emails and phone messages from The Fix in the past several weeks.
Meanwhile a policy analyst for the Manhattan Institute said he supports cracking down on fraud but called the new rule a “blunt instrument.”
“DHS should rigorously enforce rules governing immigration fraud and overstays,” Santiago Calvo wrote in City Journal. “But requiring hundreds of thousands of compliant students to prove repeatedly that they deserve to finish legitimate degrees is bad not just for them, but for America.”
Those concerns deserve attention if USCIS turns a reasonable review into another federal backlog.
Administrative convenience still can't be the controlling principle for immigration status. Temporary admission should require periodic proof that the reason for staying still exists, especially when DHS found thousands of people who first entered as students 15 to 25 years earlier and remained in active F-1 status.
The government identified consecutive educational programs, school transfers, and repeated program extensions as ways some stays became extraordinarily long.
The final rule also cuts the F-1 post-completion grace period from 60 days to 30 and tightens rules involving transfers and changes in academic objectives. Those provisions deserve scrutiny, and legitimate students shouldn't become casualties of sloppy administration.
America should and needs to welcome talented foreign students. Our universities, research labs, businesses, and country can benefit enormously when bright people choose an American education.
Welcome doesn't require an immigration category capable of continuing for decades without a new federal decision. Temporary status should have a duration, and if more time is justified, there is now a process to request it.
President Trump's rule asks the government to do something remarkably basic: periodically decide whether a temporary stay should remain temporary.
Immigration policy shouldn't be governed by loopholes, bureaucratic inertia, or rules nobody is willing to question. PJ Media VIP helps us keep digging past the talking points and asking who benefits, who pays, and whether government policies still make sense. Currently, save 60% with promo code FIGHT.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member