Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, EXPERT INSIGHTS—New rule caps international student visas at 4 years: Here’s what employers, higher ed, and K-12 schools should do now, (Jul 21, 2026)

By Jennifer B. Carroll, Russell Ford, Angelica M. Ochoa, Kristin L. Smith, and Shiloh Theberge of Fisher Phillips, LLP

What businesses and educational institutions at all levels need to know about the July 16 release.

The federal government has just ended a decades-old policy that let international students stay in the United States for as long as it took them to finish school. Under a new rule from the Department of Homeland Security released last week, most F-1 students, J-1 exchange visitors, and I-visa foreign journalists will now be admitted for a fixed period of no more than four years, after which they must apply for an extension to stay. The change takes effect September 15, and affects how employers need to track some international hires, how K-12 schools, colleges, and universities need to rebuild their compliance programs, and the international student’s offices will have to adapt policies, training, and systems to implement this new rule. What do businesses and educational institutions at all levels need to know about the July 16 release?

Summary of New Rule

For nearly 50 years, F-1, J-1, and most I nonimmigrants were admitted for “duration of status (D/S),” meaning they could remain in the country for as long as they kept up their program, without a fixed expiration date. With last week’s release of a 553-page rule, DHS is now scrapping that framework entirely and replacing it with a new structure:

• F-1 students and J-1 exchange visitors are admitted for the length of their program, capped at four years, plus a 30-day arrival window and a 30-day departure window after completion. Under the prior rules, F-1 students had a 60-day post-completion grace period. The proposed rule cuts that grace period in half, reducing it to 30 days. The 30-day arrival and departure periods do not count against the four-year maximum.

• I-visa foreign media representatives get up to 240 days per admission period (90 days for most nationals from the People’s Republic of China), with an extension path available.

• Anyone who needs more time than their fixed period allows must file a formal Extension of Stay application with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) before their admission period runs out. These decisions are discretionary, and they cannot be appealed. The new extension process shifts control of extensions from campus-based SEVIS processes to USCIS adjudication. A student or exchange visitor who cannot complete the program, practical training, academic training, or a new higher-level program within the fixed admission period must either depart and seek readmission or file an extension-of-stay application with USCIS before the authorized stay expires. DSOs and ROs remain important because the I-20 or DS-2019 must still support the requested program end date or training recommendation, but the DSO/RO’s SEVIS action alone will no longer extend lawful presence.

• Students already in the country when the rule takes effect aren’t cut off immediately. Current F and J nonimmigrants who are in the United States in valid D/S status on the rule’s effective date generally may remain without filing an extension of stay until the program end date on the Form I-20 or DS-2019 that is valid on the effective date, up to a maximum of four years from the rule’s effective date, followed by the applicable departure period under the transition rule. However, travel outside of the United States after the effective date will generally subject the person to the new fixed date system upon readmission. The rule also provides a temporary transition provision for certain F-1 students in D/S who timely file OPT or STEM OPT employment authorization applications during the initial transition period.

• DHS is also tightening the rules on switching majors or transferring schools. Undergrad-level students can’t change majors or transfer within their first academic year without an exception. Grad-level students can’t change majors at all during their program and generally can’t transfer either.

DHS says the goal is better oversight and fraud prevention, pointing to more than 1.8 million student visa admissions in 2024 alone and citing cases of students remaining in F-1 status for decades.

But it’s worth noting that USCIS is currently sitting on more than 11 million pending cases, with average processing times exceeding a year. How the government resolves that backlog will determine how smoothly this actually plays out for the students, exchange visitors, and institutions affected.

What Employers Should Do

The good news for employers is that this rule does not touch H-1B cap-gap protection. DHS confirmed directly that F-1 students transitioning to H-1B status keep their existing automatic extension of status and work authorization through September 30 of the relevant fiscal year, or their H-1B start date, whichever comes first.

The real issues to address:

• Timeline compression on OPT and STEM OPT. International graduates working under practical training authorization now operate under a hard four-year admission clock layered on top of their EAD expiration. If a candidate’s fixed admission period expires before an H-1B transition or other status change is finalized, employers will need to address the issue early. The rule does provide automatic authorized-stay protections for timely filed extension applications, but with important limit on employment. F-1 students who timely file an extension of stay before their I-94 expires may continue pursuing a full course of study while USCIS adjudicates the extension. Certain existing on-campus employment, CPT, and severe economic hardship employment may continue for up to 240 days while a timely EOS is pending, but employment authorization is not automatically extended if the EOS is filed only during the 30-day post-completion period.

• EOS delays hitting your hiring calendar. Any employee who needs an Extension of Stay to keep working legally is now dependent on USCIS turnaround time, and that backlog is massive. Build slack into your onboarding and background-check timelines.

• University partnership disruption. If your company runs sponsored research programs, recruiting pipelines, or co-op arrangements with universities, the new transfer and major-change restrictions could affect which students are available and when.

Action items:

1. Audit your current international-hire pipeline now. Identify anyone whose I-20 or DS-2019 program end date, or four-year admission clock, lands close to a planned start date or H-1B filing window.

2. Build EOS processing delays into your onboarding and start-date planning for anyone in F-1 or J-1 status, especially for roles depending on OPT or STEM OPT authorization.

3. Loop in your immigration counsel and HR team now, not at the next renewal cycle. There’s no reason to treat cap-gap as at risk, but there’s also no room for assuming timelines will run the way they used to.

What Higher Education Institutions Should Do

For colleges and universities, this rule changes daily operations more than it changes who’s eligible to study here. Two things deserve the most attention.

The transfer and major-change restrictions are an underreported issue. As noted above, undergraduate-level F-1 students can’t transfer schools or change majors within their first academic year without an SEVP-approved exception. Graduate-level students can’t change majors at any point in their program and generally can’t transfer at all. After completing one educational level, F-1 students generally may only move upward, not into a same-level or lower-level program, on a prospective basis. Standalone English language training is limited to an aggregate 24 months.

The fixed-date administrative burden is also significant. DSOs are moving from tracking open-ended compliance to tracking individual expiration dates for every F-1 and J-1 student and scholar, while managing a wave of EOS filings for anyone in programs lasting more than four years (most PhDs, many MD programs, some professional degrees). Because EOS decisions are discretionary and unappealable, a student who’s done everything right could still face a denial with no straightforward recourse. The rule will also require policy, training, and systems changes. Schools will need to revise orientation materials, international office webpages, student handbooks, transfer and change-of-major procedures, OPT and STEM OPT checklists, and program extension workflows. Institutions using batch systems or third-party software to interface with SEVIS may also need new fields and alerts to track fixed I-94 expiration dates and USCIS extension deadlines. Although DHS has stated that it will update SEVIS and provide guidance and training, institutions should not assume SEVIS alone will catch every deadline.

Action items:

1. Inventory your current F-1 and J-1 population by expected program length now. Flag anyone whose program will run past the four-year mark before it becomes urgent.

2. Build EOS-filing support directly into your international student office’s workflow, with lead time that assumes USCIS delays rather than fast turnaround.

3. Review transfer and change-of-major policies against the new first-year lock-in rule, and make sure academic advisors know when an SEVP exception might apply.

4. Prepare clear, simple communications for admitted and current students explaining what’s changing and when. This is the kind of policy shift that generates anxiety fast if students hear about it secondhand.

What K-12 Schools Should Do

For K-12, the risk turns out to be smaller than initially feared. DHS considered exempting younger international students from the four-year cap entirely and declined to, but the practical impact is still more limited than for higher ed.

Private K-12 schools have a workable path. SEVP-certified private schools may issue an I-20 covering a student’s expected course of study through grade 12, where appropriate. That means many students entering private middle school would need an EOS only once every four years, rather than one per school transfer, assuming they do not depart the United States during that period (any trip abroad effectively resets the four-year window).

Public high schools (including charter schools) see no real change. The existing statutory cap of 12 months total F-1 status at any public high school, plus the requirement that the student reimburse the district for the full cost of their education, stays exactly as it was.

One new safety valve worth knowing about: DHS added a specific exception allowing students to change schools or programs mid-stream if it’s needed to complete elementary or secondary education. That means a legitimate school transfer won’t automatically run afoul of the new transfer restrictions built for the college-level population.

Action items:

1. Confirm your school’s SEVP certification and ensure Forms I-20 accurately reflect students’ anticipated program completion dates, including through grade 12 where appropriate

2. Identify any international students with a school transfer already in motion, and ensure the basis for the transfer is well documented.

3. Make sure admissions and front-office staff can speak to this change confidently. Overall, the new rule should not require significant overhaul of K-12 compliance practices, but schools should be prepared to answer questions from international.

Conclusion

If you have any questions about these developments or how they may affect your school or workplace, please contact your Fisher Phillips attorney, the authors of this Insight, or any attorney on our Immigration Team, our K-12 Education Team or our Higher Education Team. Make sure you are subscribed to Fisher Phillips’ Insight System to get the most up-to-date information.

Jennifer B. Carroll, Russell Ford, Angelica M. Ochoa, Kristin L. Smith, and Shiloh Theberge

Fisher Phillips, LLP

URL: https://www.fisherphillips.com/

Attorneys: (Fisher Phillips).

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