The Department of Homeland Security has sent its final regulation to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the last step before the rule can be published and take effect, according to Bloomberg Law and the international education association NAFSA.
For more than three decades, students on F visas have been admitted for "duration of status," where their stay tied to the length of their academic program rather than a fixed end date. As long as they keep studying and follow visa conditions, the clock never runs out.
The new rule ends that. Students would instead be admitted for a set period tied to the end date on their enrollment forms, capped at four years. Anyone still studying past that point would have to apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for an extension.
The cap would also force students in shorter programs to leave when their course ends unless they secure an extension first, ICEF Monitor reported.
The proposal would cut the grace period after graduation from 60 days to 30, and bar undergraduates from switching schools or majors during their first year, according to immigration-law analyses.
