The Department of Homeland Security has finalized a rule capping student visas at four years, ending an open-ended admission policy that has been in place since 1979. The rule went on public inspection on July 16 and takes effect on September 15, 2026, Inside Higher Ed reported. It is a final rule, not a proposal — the comment period closed last September.
The detail that explains the timing: this is the second attempt, not the first. DHS published a nearly identically titled rule on September 25, 2020, during Trump’s first term. The Biden administration withdrew it on July 6, 2021, saying it would reanalyze the proposal. The same policy has now been revived and completed roughly six years later.
What the student visas rule actually changes
The old system was called “duration of status.” A student on an F visa was admitted for as long as their program lasted, however long that took, and campus officials handled the paperwork through the SEVIS database. That ends in September.
Under the new rule, F and J holders are admitted for the length of their program but no more than four years, with a 30-day grace period afterward — down from 60 days for F-1 students. English-language programs are capped at 24 months. Anyone needing more time must file a Form I-539 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, paying the filing fee and submitting biometrics.
That last change is the one universities are actually worried about. The four-year number makes the headlines; the transfer of extension decisions from a campus adviser to a federal adjudication queue is what touches every PhD candidate whose research runs long.
What Homeland Security says the problem is
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin put the case for the rule in terms of abuse.
“For decades, foreign students have been admitted into the U.S. indefinitely, allowing thousands to abuse our immigration system by perpetually enrolling in courses to avoid having to leave the U.S.”
He argued the rule leaves study itself untouched. “They will still be able to continue to pursue their full course of study or exchange program,” Mullin said. “However, if they need additional time in F or J status, the burden will now be on them to request authorization directly from DHS and establish eligibility to extend their period of stay in such status,” he told The Washington Times.
The department’s stated evidence is specific and small: more than 2,100 people who first entered as students between 2000 and 2010 were still in student status as of April 2026.
Universities doubt USCIS can absorb the extensions
Roughly 22,000 people filed public comments on the proposal, most of them opposed. The objection is rarely the four-year figure itself — it is the queue behind it.
Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, said before the rule was finalized that she had “little faith that USCIS can actually respond to the volume and tsunami of program extensions.” She added: “If there are issues that they wish to fix, let’s talk about those and let’s find solutions…this is not the way.”
Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, said of the proposed version that it “would force them to regularly and unnecessarily submit additional applications to be able to stay in the country and fulfill requirements of their academic programs, imposing significant burdens on students, colleges and universities, and federal agencies alike.”
Delo Blough, a retired director of international services, framed the risk in enrollment terms. “If they’re going to be very strict on ‘We’re only going to give very limited cases after four years,’ then we’re going to lose a lot of [international] graduate students,” she said.
The numbers behind the argument
The United States recorded about 1.8 million student visa admissions in 2024, an 11% rise on the year, plus more than 500,000 exchange visitors in fiscal 2024. International students contributed roughly $50 billion to the economy in 2023.
Those figures cut both ways, which is why both sides cite them. A larger inflow is either a bigger enforcement problem or a bigger economic asset, depending on which lectern you are standing at. The rule does not attempt to settle that. It changes how long student visas run, and who decides whether they run any longer.
Immigration policy has been moving on several fronts at once — the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship earlier this year.
What happens on September 15
The rule cleared review at the Office of Management and Budget on June 17 and is subject to the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress a window to act. Student visas already issued do not shorten overnight — students in the country will meet the new system at their next extension, not on day one.
The 2020 version died because an administration changed. This one arrives with sixty days on the clock and no such reprieve in sight.
