Trump administration moves to tighten duration of visas for students and media
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International students, exchange workers and foreign journalists would have to apply to extend their stay in the US under the proposed new rules.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
- Trump administration proposes fixed visa durations for students, exchange visitors, and media, reversing current "duration of programme" allowance.
- Aim is better "monitor and oversee" visa holders, impacting approximately 1.6 million students and thousands of exchange and media visitors.
- Public comment period of 30 days; mirrors 2020 proposal opposed by NAFSA and withdrawn by the Biden administration in 2021.
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration aims to tighten the duration of visas for students, cultural exchange visitors and members of the media, according to a proposed government regulation issued on Aug 27, part of a broader crackdown on legal immigration.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown after taking office in January.
The latest move would create new hurdles for international students, exchange workers and foreign journalists who would have to apply to extend their stay in the US rather than maintain a more flexible legal status.
The proposed regulation would create a fixed time period for F visas for international students, J visas that allow visitors on cultural exchange programmes to work in the US, and I visas for members of the media.
Those visas are currently available for the duration of the programme or US-based employment.
There were about 1.6 million international students on F visas in the US in 2024, according to US government data. The US granted visas to about 355,000 exchange visitors and 13,000 members of the media in fiscal year 2024, which began on Oct 1, 2023.
The student and exchange visa periods would be no longer than four years, the proposed regulation said.
The visa for journalists – which currently can last years – would be up to 240 days or, in the case of China nationals, 90 days.
The visa holders could apply for extensions, the proposal said.
China’s foreign ministry, asked about the proposed new rule for Chinese journalists on Aug 28, said it opposed “the discriminatory practices adopted by the US against specific countries”.
The Trump administration said in the proposed regulation that the change was needed to better “monitor and oversee” the visa holders while they were in the US.
The public will have 30 days to comment on the measure, which mirrors a proposal put forward in 2020 at the end of Mr Trump’s first term in office.
Nafsa, a non-profit organisation representing international educators at more than 4,300 institutions worldwide, opposed the 2020 proposal and called on the Trump administration to scrap it.
The Democratic administration of former president Joe Biden withdrew it in 2021.
The Trump administration has increased scrutiny of legal immigration, revoking student visas and green cards of university students over their ideological views and stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of migrants.
In an Aug 22 memo, US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it would resume long-dormant visits to citizenship applicants’ neighbourhoods to check what it termed residency, moral character and commitment to American ideals. REUTERS
