Trump Administration Proposes New Rules for Foreign Students

August 28, 2025

August 28, 2025 – Today, the Department of Homeland Security issued a proposed new rule to regulate foreign students and exchange visitors, limiting the time they are allowed to stay in the United States. These measures will help reduce visa overstays and ensure that students are complying with the terms of their visa.

Details:

The new rule would:

Eliminate Duration of Status (D/S) for students and international media.
Set the authorized admission for up to the program length, not to exceed a 4-year period.
Limit transfers — for F-1 students changing educational objectives or transferring to an SEVP-certified school, requiring that the student complete his or her first academic year of a program of study at the school that initially issued his or her Form I-20 or successor form, unless an exception is authorized by the Student Exchange Visa Program (SEVP);
Limit extensions of stay.
Prohibit F-1 students at the graduate education level from changing programs at any point during a program of study.
Reduce time students can stay after studies from 60 to 30 days.
Allow the collection of biometrics on those seeking an extension in the U.S.
Limit language training students to an aggregate 24-month period of stay, including breaks and an annual vacation;
International media: fixed period of time not to exceed 240 days (with the exception of some I visa aliens from the People’s Republic of China), with an Extension of Stay (EOS) available for I visa nonimmigrants who can meet specified EOS requirements

Make Student Visas About Education Again:

The terrorist attacks on the United States on 9/11 highlighted the fraud, abuse, and loopholes in the foreign student visa program. In 2023, more than 1.6 million foreign students were admitted in the country, surpassing records. Some foreign students continue to violate the terms of their visas, and some take opportunities from American students. This rule will better scrutinize foreign students before they enter and strengthen oversight of them when they are here.

The visa overstay rate for student or exchange visitors is among the highest of all nonimmigrant groups at 3.67% (DHS, 2023). Moreover, our higher education system has used these programs to sell visas, not education.

The F-1 visa is supposed to be for educational purposes. In reality, it is viewed as a backdoor to the U.S. labor market via programs like the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. The National Science Foundation promoted an increase in foreign students as a means to “hold down the level of PhD salaries” as far back as 1989. The NSF notoriously predicted that a surge in foreign student enrollment would discourage domestic students.

The new Trump administration rule would set an end date for foreign students to remain in the country, not to exceed four years, and limits possibilities for extensions. Students who seek extensions will apply directly to the Department of Homeland Security and provide their biometric information to the government. The foreign students would not be allowed to transfer schools once they arrive in the U.S. These measures will help reduce visa overstays and ensure that students are complying with the terms of their visa.

Limits for Exchange Visitors

The rule also sets similar limits for the exchange visitors (J visas, such as summer workers, camp counselors, au pairs) and members of the foreign media (I visas), especially those from China.

Some J visa holders are susceptible to abuse from employers. The program is supposed to facilitate educational and cultural exchanges, but J-visa holders often end up working long hours in menial jobs. Previous reports from the GAO and the State Department Inspector General have concluded that the State Department should not be operating the program and that the visa results in American workers being denied jobs.

The J visa “Summer Work Travel Program” refers not to our summer, but to the summer of the guestworkers, meaning it can be used to avoid hiring Americans year-round. The program has become a “money machine,” with over $100 million received every year in fees. American sponsors pair with overseas sponsors to grab a piece of the pie. There is a “robust” social media effort to recruit foreign youth to the program and into U.S. jobs. Some websites help employers calculate how much money they can save by not hiring American kids; employers also win free trips abroad if they hire a certain number of kids through the sponsors. There is no such effort to recruit American kids, who wouldn’t pay fees to the sponsors. While a strong lobby to expand the SWT program exists, there is no lobby for American kids.

Public Comments

The Department of Homeland Security encourages all interested parties to submit “data, views, comments, and arguments on all aspects of this notice of proposed rulemaking.”

Go to: https://www.regulations.gov;
Insert “ICEB-2025-0001” in the “Search” box;
Click on the rule that appears in the “Search Results.”
Click on the “Comment” box under the name of the rule and input your comments in the text box provided.

When you are finished, follow the prompts, and then click “Submit Comment.”

Public comments will be open for 30 days