The President Donald Trump-led administration in the United States (US) has restricted the duration of visas for international students, cultural exchange visitors and journalists.
According to reports, a final rule introduced by the Department of Homeland Security has established a fixed timeframe for F visas given to international students, J visas for cultural exchange programs and I visas for media personnel.
The visas were previously valid for the full length of a student’s academic programme or an individual’s employment in the US. However, under the new guidelines, the maximum duration for student and exchange visas is capped at four years, whereas visas for foreign journalists will be restricted to 240 days, while Chinese nationals working in the media will face a 90-day limit.
The policy is scheduled to take effect 60 days after its publication in the federal register, pending a review by the US Congress.
The policy also prohibits graduate students from changing their educational objectives or transferring to a different university without receiving prior authorisation.
Furthermore, the grace period for international students to depart the US after finishing their degree or training has been reduced from 60 days to 30 days.
While visa holders retain the option to apply for extensions, David J Bier, immigration studies director at the Cato Institute, pointed out that the restrictions on study and school transfers lack a legal foundation.
“International students, many of whom will have spent years in the US, will now have just 30 days to find an employer to sponsor them or immediately be turned into illegal immigrants. Have these people no understanding of how life works?” Bier remarked.
The Department of Homeland Security, on the other hand, pointed to a significant rise in visa numbers to justify the policy change.
Official figures show that student visa admissions exceeded 1.8 million in 2024, representing an 11 percent increase compared to 2023. Additionally, the US approved visas for over 500,000 exchange visitors and 37,300 media workers during the 2024 fiscal year.
This measure is part of a broader immigration crackdown initiated after President Trump assumed office in January 2025. The administration has implemented stricter oversight on legal immigration, which has included cancelling student visas and green cards for university students based on ideological views, alongside removing legal status for hundreds of thousands of migrants.
In response to the announcement, China’s foreign ministry described the policy as discriminatory and demanded that Washington DC cancel the regulations affecting Chinese journalists.
Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated during a press briefing in Beijing that the decision “seriously violates the three-point consensus on media issues reached between China and the US in 2021, and seriously affects the normal work of Chinese media in the U.S”.
Lin added that China maintains the right to implement retaliatory measures.
