DHS Proposes Limits on Student and Exchange Program Visas (1)

A newly proposed rule from the Department of Homeland Security would give foreign students and exchange program participants on F and J visas two- to four-year time limits before requiring them to apply for an extension.

Under existing rules, those visas remain valid for as long as the student continues to meet program requirements.

Accounting for the proposed change, DHS said that the existing “duration of status” policy, and the “significant increase” in the volume of F-visa academic students, J exchange visitors, and I foreign information media representatives, “poses a challenge to the Department’s ability to monitor and oversee these ...