A temporarily blocked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule would give the federal government more oversight of foreign students in the United States while making it more difficult for them to stay in the country.
DHS has said additional oversight is needed for foreign students, citing national security concerns. Colleges said under the rule international students would balk at coming to the United States, uncertain if they would be allowed to complete their degrees.
A federal judge on Sept. 14 blocked the rule’s implementation while a legal challenge proceeds in court, saying the federal government’s claim it was needed to safeguard national security “borders on the absurd.”
Here’s what to know about the rule and the controversy surrounding it.
New Rule
The rule generally limits students on F-1 visas to four years before they must seek federal approval to stay longer.
DHS says the change is needed because existing safeguards have not done enough to prevent fraud, abuse, and national security threats, including the risk of foreign espionage at U.S. universities.
Under the old system, most F-1 students were admitted for “duration of status,” meaning there wasn’t a specific expiration date tied to their admission. As long as they remained properly enrolled, made normal progress toward their degrees, and followed the F-1 rules, they could remain while completing their program. If an international student didn’t complete the program within the estimated time period, a college official could approve an extension.
That doesn’t mean they must finish school in four years. If a doctorate degree takes five or six years, for example, the student can continue, but the student would need additional federal authorization to stay beyond the expiration date. Generally, that means filing an extension-of-stay application with USCIS.
The decision to grant or deny an extension would be subject entirely to the discretion of an immigration official. The final decision could not be appealed.
Judge Blocks Rule
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV blocked implementation of the rule on Sept. 14.
Saylor said DHS provided no explanation as to how the new rule would deter future acts of sabotage or spying.
Saylor said DHS responded that it disagreed with that and had provided specific examples of national security concerns.
DHS called concerns that the new rule would lead to a decline in enrollment “conjecture.” It also objected to its examples of visa holders posing as security risks as “merely ‘anecdotes.’”
“They are demonstrative of systematic security gaps in relevant nonimmigrant visa programs which present substantial risks to the United States,” DHS said in its brief.
The judge said that public interest favored an injunction against the DHS rule.
He noted a study that claimed international students contributed $44 billion to the economy and many medical students on visas serve as resident physicians in the United States, concluding they “serve a critical role in the U.S. healthcare infrastructure.”
A coalition of higher education groups and labor unions sued DHS to block the rule.
National Security, Academic Concerns
College professors say the red tape and extra bureaucracy will discourage international students from attending American colleges.
“The real question is whether the extension will be easy to obtain for legitimate students or whether we will see a few students being denied and asked to leave the country without a degree,” said Andreas Karch, a professor of physics at the University of Texas-Austin, in an email to The Epoch Times.
“If this happens, our international applicant pool would collapse,” Karch added, noting the risk students would face of not receiving an extension.
Foreign students are already monitored through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a federal database that requires schools to report information about their enrollment and immigration status.
The nonprofit NAFSA: Association of International Educators said the DHS rule was “a solution in search of a problem.”
“SEVIS and the partnership between institutions and the federal government already provide a rigorous and highly effective system of oversight, compliance, and accountability,” the group said in a July statement.
DHS said SEVIS relied on information provided by universities and program sponsors, and that improvements to SEVIS haven’t been enough to prevent fraud, abuse, and national security problems.
DHS stated in the new rule: “An open education environment in the United States offers benefits, but it also places research universities and the nation at risk for economic, academic, or military espionage by foreign students. Foreign adversaries are using progressively sophisticated and resourceful methods to exploit the U.S. educational environment, including well-documented cases of espionage through the student program.”
In May 2025, DHS tried to revoke Harvard University’s certification under SEVIS. The action would have prevented Harvard from enrolling new international students in F or J status and could have forced existing students to transfer or risk losing lawful status.
Harvard sued, arguing the move was unlawful and retaliatory, and a federal judge blocked it. A subsequent directive was blocked as well.
A 2022 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that SEVIS had incomplete information about some foreign students’ employment, especially students participating in optional practical training.
GAO said that mattered because employment information can show which students may have access to sensitive technology and help the government assess technology-transfer risks. GAO specifically noted graduate students from countries of concern such as China.
DHS said that while GAO’s report led to changes, those weren’t enough to prevent issues like fraud, abuse, and national security threats.
In October 2024, the FBI charged five Chinese nationals who studied at the University of Michigan with conspiracy, making false statements, and destroying or altering records related to a 2023 encounter at Camp Grayling. The five individuals are accused of taking photos of military equipment at Camp Grayling.
In June 2020, three Chinese nationals were sentenced to prison terms for illegal photography of military installations at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida. Two of those arrested were F-1 students, and one was a J-1 exchange visitor.
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