The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is currently reviewing the final draft of a regulation that is expected to replace the current “duration of status” (D/S) policy for F (foreign students), J (exchange visitors), and I (representatives of foreign information media) visa holders with a policy that would set a finite expiration date for their authorized periods of stay. OMB review is the last step in the rulemaking process before a regulation can be finalized.
Currently, nonimmigrants visiting the United States on D/S visas do not have a fixed end date, on which their authorized period of stay terminates, printed on the Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record. Instead, these nonimmigrants are allowed to remain in the United States for as long as they maintain the conditions of their immigration status.
Specifically, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed, in addition to other substantive, technical, and clarifying amendments, to:
- Provide for a fixed time period of authorized stay for F, J, and I nonimmigrants and provide procedures specific to the transition from D/S;
- Set the authorized admission and extension periods for F and J nonimmigrants to the program length, not to exceed a four-year period;
- Prohibit F-1 nonimmigrants enrolled in graduate education programs from changing programs at any point during a program of study;
- Outline procedures and requirements for F-1 nonimmigrants who change educational objectives while in F-1 status and require any nonimmigrant who has completed a program at one educational level to only be allowed to begin another program at a higher educational level while in F-1 status and prohibiting a change to the same or a lower educational level while in F-1 status;
- Decrease from 60 to 30 days the allowed period for F-1 nonimmigrants to prepare to depart from the United States after completion of a course of study or authorized period of post-completion practical training;
- Provide for collection of biometric information in conjunction with an Extension of Stay (EOS) application;
- Limit language-training students to an aggregate 24-month period of stay;
- Replace D/S for I nonimmigrants with admission for a fixed time period until they complete the activities or assignments consistent with the I classification, not to exceed 240 days, with EOS availability;
- Codify the definition of a foreign media organization for I nonimmigrant status.
DHS stated that the rule change is necessary to support the integrity of the F, J, and I visa programs, facilitate applicant vetting, and bring these nonimmigrant visa programs in line with the statutory scheme. This rule is a revival of a similar regulation change that the first Trump administration proposed in 2020. The Biden administration rescinded that proposal in July 2021.
CIS submitted a comment supporting the rule change. CIS argued that DHS must replace the D/S policy with a fixed period of authorized stay because the current policy undermines multiple statutory and policy objectives Congress has carefully enacted. For example, D/S statuses frustrate Congress’s penalty scheme in enacting IIRIRA because this framework makes it nearly impossible for DHS to understand when an alien in F, J, or I status has begun accrue unlawful presence for the purpose of enforcing the three- and 10-year bars (described in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) § 212(a)(9)(B)). Moreover, the INA provides no basis for D/S. Congress set up a bright-line system: Once a period of authorized stay ends, unlawful presence should start accruing.
DHS’s current D/S framework is thus an impermissible narrowing of the statute’s penalty scheme. Agencies cannot create carve-outs or safe harbors from statutory penalties like D/S creates for F, J, and I nonimmigrants by hindering DHS’s ability to determine when an alien has violated the terms of their immigration status.
Second, CIS believes the current D/S policy weakens the integrity and accountability of the immigration system by fostering uncertainty, limiting DHS’s ability to track compliance, and creating opportunities for exploitation by bad-faith actors. D/S also creates vulnerabilities that can be exploited to the detriment of U.S. national security, since the absence of clear, fixed end dates impedes enforcement, monitoring, and risk assessment.
CIS has also tracked numerous instances of fraud, for example, in the F nonimmigrant visa program, including “pay-to-stay” schemes where school officials, in return for cash payments, falsely report that F-1 visa holders who do not attend school are nonetheless maintaining their status as students.
In some of these cases, CIS and DHS have reported that designated school officials (DSOs), the agents that the current regulatory framework assigns to certify F-1 visa holders’ compliance with their status, are also complicit in the fraud and documented cases where DSOs “intentionally recorded a student’s status inaccurately; … issued program extensions to students who did not have a compelling medical or academic reasons for failing to complete their program by its end date, and … permitted students who failed to maintain status to transfer to another school rather than apply for reinstatement”.
In addition to bad-acting school officials and DSOs, CIS has tracked cases (which DHS has also acknowledged) of students who have abused the F nonimmigrant visa program to reside in the United States for decades by becoming “lifelong” students. The current D/S regulatory framework has allowed at least 2,134 aliens who have entered the United States under the F nonimmigrant visa program between 2000 and 2010 (16-26 years ago) to remain active in their F-1 status as of April 2026. The F visa program, however, was created to allow foreign nationals to temporarily enter the United States for the purpose of pursuing an academic course of study — not long-term residency.
As DHS acknowledged, “Under the current D/S framework, DHS might not detect an individual status violation for an extended period if the alien stays enrolled in a school, does not seek readmission to the United States, and does not apply for additional immigration benefits.” Providing F, J, and I classification with a firm end date for authorized periods of stay would allow DHS to check in with these visa holders to ensure that their activities are consistent with law and with their visa classifications, and do not otherwise display evidence of abuse. In the foreign-student context, the proposed policy change also reflects a shift away from relying on universities to monitor foreign students and returns primary oversight responsibility to DHS.
Critics of the policy argue that DHS does not have the adjudicatory resources necessary to implement this change and worry that the new rule will significantly increase administrative burdens on both DHS and nonimmigrants. DHS may be able to ease these concerns, however, by phasing the implementation of the fixed-time policy by beginning with higher-risk cohorts, strengthening the SEVIS reporting system, and expanding digitization of the immigration programs. Additionally, eliminating the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which lacks statutory authorization and may also violate the INA, would significantly reduce the adjudicatory burden associated with implementing this policy.
Once a regulation is finalized, the language will be published in the Federal Register, along with DHS’s response to all relevant comments it received on the regulatory proposal from the public. Agencies sometimes revise the regulatory language after considering the public’s comments.