The Trump administration has proposed new rules to restrict the duration of visas for international students, cultural exchange visitors, and foreign journalists, a move officials say is designed to tighten oversight and reduce misuse.
The regulation, issued on Wednesday, would replace the current “duration of status” system with fixed visa terms. International students on F visas, cultural exchange workers on J visas, and foreign journalists on I visa would all face set time limits.
“There were about 1.6 million international students on F visas in the US in 2024, along with roughly 355,000 exchange visitors and 13,000 members of the media,” Reuters reported, citing US government data.
Under the proposal, student and exchange visas would be capped at four years. For journalists, the limit would be 240 days — or just 90 days for Chinese nationals — with the option to apply for extensions.
“For too long, past Administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the US virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amounts of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantaging US citizens,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said. “This new proposed rule would end that abuse once and for all by limiting the amount of time certain visa holders are allowed to remain in the US, easing the burden on the federal government to properly oversee foreign students and history.”
The administration argued the change is necessary to better “monitor and oversee” visa holders while they are in the country. The public will have 30 days to comment on the measure.
This rule mirrors a 2020 proposal from Trump’s first term, which was later withdrawn by the Biden administration. At the time, NAFSA, an international educators’ group representing over 4,300 institutions worldwide, strongly opposed the plan and urged the White House to abandon it.
The new proposal adds to a string of immigration-related measures from President Donald Trump, who has sharply increased scrutiny of even legal migration programs. His administration has revoked student visas and green cards based on ideological grounds and stripped the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services has also announced it would resume neighbourhood checks on naturalisation applicants to verify residency, character, and what it called “commitment to American ideals.”
– Ends
With inputs from Reuters