The Trump administration moved on Thursday to tighten the length of visas for international college students, cultural trade guests and journalists.
The brand new last rule from the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) creates a hard and fast time interval for F visas for worldwide college students, J visas that permit guests on cultural trade applications to work within the US, and I visas for members of the media.
These visas are at the moment out there throughout this system or employment within the US. The efficient date is 60 days from publication within the Federal Register, topic to congressional overview.
US President Donald Trump, a Republican, kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown after taking workplace in January 2025. His administration has elevated scrutiny of authorized immigration, revoking scholar visas and inexperienced playing cards of college college students over their ideological views and stripping authorized standing from tons of of hundreds of migrants.
The most recent motion would create new hurdles for worldwide college students, trade employees and international journalists. Underneath the brand new laws, the scholar and trade visa intervals can be now not than 4 years.
The visa for journalists — which at the moment can final years — can be as much as 240 days or, within the case of Chinese language nationals, 90 days. The visa holders might apply for extensions, it stated.
In August, China’s international ministry opposed the proposed new rule for Chinese language journalists as being discriminatory. The Chinese language Embassy didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon Thursday.
Student stipulations
The regulations prohibit graduate students from changing their “educational objectives” at any point or from transferring to another school without authorization. They halve the amount of time students have to leave the United States after completing their degree or training from 60 to 30 days.
“Most Americans understand the value of welcoming international students and getting rid of unnecessary red tape,” said Doug Rand, a former DHS official. “This rule would do the opposite.”
David J Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, said there was no legal basis for the study and transfer restrictions in the new regulations.
“International students, many of whom will have spent years in the USA, will now have just 30 days to find an employer to sponsor them or immediately be turned into illegal immigrants. Do these people have no understanding of how life works?” he asked.
The department cited a dramatic rise in such visas in the posting. It said there were more than 1.8 million student visa admissions in 2024, a more than 11 percent increase over the previous year.
The US granted visas to more than 500,000 exchange visitors and 37,300 members of the media in fiscal year 2024, which began on October 1, 2023, it said.
The significant increase in the volume of such visitors “poses a challenge to DHS’s ability to monitor and oversee these non-immigrants while they are in the United States”, DHS said.
The department said it has many examples of students and exchange visitors staying for decades on their visas.
Visa holders who want to stay in the United States beyond their fixed period of admission will need to apply to DHS for an extension or gain readmission by traveling abroad and then re-entering the United States, DHS said.
