On August 28, 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed a rule in the Federal Register, titled “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,” announcing a 30-day public comment period. The proposed rule seeks to limit the validity period for beneficiaries of those visas relative to the current rules. 

Impact:  

Under current regulations, persons who are beneficiaries of F visas for foreign students, J visas for exchange visitors, and I visas for representatives of foreign media outlets that have a home office in a foreign country, have their visas approved for a period that does not have a set duration, but instead is tied to specific program the visa holder is participating in or their employment. (This is known as being approved for a “duration of status.”)   

DHS’s August 28 proposed rule seeks to change this to limit most admissions for foreign students at four years and possibly limit English language program students for two-years. The rule also proposes to shorten the grace period for leaving the country after completion of studies from 60 to 30 days. Visas for representatives of foreign media outlets would be limited to 240 days under DHS’s proposal. 

There are nearly 1.6 million active records for persons who hold F-1 and M-1 visas; a miniscule share of those are M-1 holders, as there were 6,322 M-1 visas issued in 2024 (M-1 visas are not impacted by the proposed rule but are lumped together with F-1 by DHS in data reports). There were over 400,000 new F-1 visas issued by the State Department in 2024, 323,000 J-1 visas, and nearly 13,000 I visas. 

DHS notes in their reasoning for the proposal that the current system undermines the agency’s ability to monitor and enforce compliance and results in fewer check-ins with DHS to verify compliance, and leads to insufficient monitoring of beneficiaries. DHS also cited national security concerns. It is difficult to know if these measures will significantly impact demand for visas in these three categories, but the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a lobby group for universities, argues that it will burden schools and students and deter foreign students and academics from coming to the United States.  

Project 2025 Reference: p. 141