The Trump administration announced Thursday it would limit how long students, exchange visitors and journalists can stay in the United States on a visa.
The Department of Homeland Security’s new final rule would cap visas for students at four years and at less than a year for journalists and exchange visitors.
While the government issues those visas for the duration of programs or employment, the new rule would require people on those visas to obtain governmental approval if they want to stay longer.
And the rule would also shorten the time foreign students have to leave the country or find a job from 60 to 30 days.
Trending
“For decades, foreign students have been admitted into the U.S. for an unspecified period, enabling thousands to abuse the system and become ‘forever students’ by perpetually enrolling in courses to avoid leaving our nation,” DHS wrote in a post on X. “By implementing clear, finite limits on these visas, the United States is reclaiming its ability to properly screen, vet, and monitor individuals within our borders.”
In its rule, DHS placed the number of such “forever students” at approximately 2,100 remaining on visas who came into the U.S. from 2000 to 2010.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the new changes fit into the administration’s pattern of curbing legal migration. “It’s just a manufactured issue and with a sledgehammer solution that just imposes crushing regulatory burdens on a far greater number of people,” he said.
The State Department said in January it had revoked 8,000 student visas. It has also targeted pro-Palestinian student protesters. Last year, the administration ordered a pause on student visas, then restarted them but required social media screenings.
The changes have led to a decline in the number of student visas issued. The State Department granted 18% fewer student visas in September 2025 than in September 2024, according to an analysis of the department’s data from the Niskanen Center. The centrist think tank also estimates there were 52,000 fewer international students and exchange visitors in June 2026 than in June 2025.
Cecilia Esterline, a senior immigration policy analyst for The Niskanen Center, said placing time limits on the visas wouldn’t be a problem if U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services could process the newly required applications on time.
“USCIS has had a pretty abysmal performance in the past several months in terms of how quickly they are getting through petitions,” Esterline said.
Delays at USCIS are already leading to people brought into the country without authorization as children losing their deportation protections and work permits.
As of May, the median processing time for the application students and journalists would have to submit for their visa extensions was 3.3 months, according to USCIS data.
DHS changed its original proposal to allow students to continue their classes while USCIS makes a decision if they submit the paperwork on time. But the rule prohibits undergraduate students from changing their majors or transferring schools in their first year and prohibits such changes for those pursuing higher degrees.
The Trump administration is placing additional cost and emotional burden on students, Bier said. Filing the application costs $420 online, and expedited processing runs $2,075.
Visa holders “just hate being run through a bureaucracy that is just so convoluted and unresponsive,” Bier said. “There has to be a big upside at the end, which is the ability to work in the United States and live here, and that dream is being eroded simultaneously alongside all of these new complicated rules.”
Author
