President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday finalized rules imposing stricter limits on how long foreign students and journalists can remain in the United States, marking its latest effort to tighten legal immigration.
Under the new rules, which could take effect as early as September, international students will be admitted for the duration of their academic programme, subject to a maximum stay of four years. Foreign journalists, meanwhile, will be limited to stays of 240 days, or about eight months, although they may apply for extensions in 240-day increments. Chinese journalists will face a shorter maximum stay of 90 days.
The measures are part of a broader immigration agenda that has become a defining feature of Trump’s presidency, combining intensified enforcement operations in major cities with tighter restrictions on legal immigration pathways.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received nearly 22,000 public comments after proposing the changes in August 2025 but finalized the regulations with few substantive modifications.
In proposing the rules, DHS argued that the previous system allowed some international students to remain in the United States indefinitely by repeatedly extending their studies, describing them as “forever students.” The department said the open-ended admission policy, which had been in place since the late 1970s, hindered its ability to effectively monitor visa holders.
The United States hosted more than 1.1 million international students during the 2023–24 academic year—the highest number worldwide. According to official data, those students contributed more than $50 billion to the US economy in 2023.
The proposal drew strong criticism from higher education groups, which argued that the changes would create unnecessary administrative hurdles and make the United States less attractive to international talent. The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration warned that the policy “weakens the ability of US colleges and universities to attract top talent.”
Universities have already reported declines in international enrolment following earlier actions by the Trump administration, including the revocation of thousands of student visas and the suspension of billions of dollars in federal research funding.
Media organizations and foreign stakeholders, including the Embassy of Japan, also urged DHS to allow admission periods of between two and five years for foreign correspondents assigned to US bureaus. They further called for expedited visa processing and caps on application fees for journalists.
DHS rejected those recommendations, maintaining the shorter admission periods and declining to adopt the proposed processing and fee changes.
Trump first proposed similar visa limits near the end of his first term, but the plan was later abandoned by his successor, Joe Biden.
The rule is now subject to congressional review by the Republican-controlled Congress.
AFP
