Trump administration signals end to ‘duration of status’ for students

On June 27th, the Department of Homeland Security submitted a proposed rule to end duration of status to the Office of Management and Budget for review.

The title of the document has been noted as ‘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’. The content of the document has not been published.

Under current immigration settings, student visa holders are allowed to remain in the USA as long as they are pursuing a course of study and meeting all other requirements of their non-immigrant status.

Photo credit – Noam Galai/Shutterstock.com

NAFSA Association of International Educators said in its regulatory update page on the proposal, “Since this is at the proposed rule stage, a rule would not become final until after the agency reviews public comments on the proposed rule, submits a final rule for OMB review, and then publishes a final rule in the Federal Register with a future effective date.”

In 2020, towards the end of the first Trump presidency, the Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule to end duration of status. The proposal was withdrawn by the Biden Administration and never came into effect.

It was proposed in 2020 that F-1 student visas be issued for the term of the programme of study, up to a maximum of four years, and that students would need to apply for extensions to stay longer.

It was also proposed that nationals from certain countries would be subject to maximum initial limits of two years if that country had an overstay rate of 10 per cent or more, and would have shortened the grace period at the end of a visa from 60 to 30 days.

Student visas for English language study would also have been limited to 24 months under the previous plans.

The original proposals in 2020 were opposed by international education associations and stakeholders.