Overseas Indian body sounds alarm bells over America's new student visa rule

Washington: A new four-year limit on F-1 and J-1 visas could push international students out of the United States midway through their degrees or research, an Indian diaspora policy group has warned.

The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) urged elected officials and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to halt the immediate implementation of the Department of Homeland Security rule.

According to FIIDS, the measure was finalised on July 16-17 and is set to take effect in mid-September.

The organisation said the rule ends the decades-old "duration of status” policy and imposes a maximum stay of four years. It also counts Optional Practical Training and STEM OPT towards that limit.

The rule cuts the grace period after completion of studies from 60 days to 30 days and requires students to obtain USCIS approval through Form I-539 for any extension, FIIDS said.

"This is a self-inflicted wound on US competitiveness,” said Khanderao Kand, chief of policy and strategy at FIIDS.

"A 4-year cap misaligns with how modern degrees actually work – median time to a bachelor’s is about 52 months and to a PhD about 5.7 years – while USCIS is already sitting on more than 11 million cases with roughly year-long processing times.”

"Students will be forced out mid-programme or mid-research, labs will lose critical talent, and America will hand its innovation pipeline to competitors,” he said.

FIIDS said many research-intensive programmes, particularly doctoral courses and medical training, routinely extend beyond four years. J-1 research scholars and physicians also often require between five and seven years to complete their programmes, it said.

Uncertainty surrounding extensions could disrupt laboratories, delay graduations and destabilise faculty recruitment plans tied to international talent, the group warned.

"Delay implementation, protect students, and safeguard US research and innovation,” Kand said. "If the goal is integrity, do it without blowing up degree pathways that power American labs and startups.”

In a statement, FIIDS called on Congress to restore duration-of-status protection for F-1 and J-1 visa holders. It also proposed statutory exemptions for graduate and STEM programmes whose median completion periods exceed 48 months, subject to a 64-month limit with automatic extensions.

The group asked USCIS and the Department of Homeland Security to provide administrative relief before the rule takes effect. Its proposals include automatic extensions for students in good standing, exclusion of OPT and STEM OPT from the four-year calculation, faster processing of Form I-539 applications and restoration of the 60-day grace period.

FIIDS said new international enrolments fell 17 per cent in autumn 2025, the steepest drop since the pandemic. It estimated that the decline resulted in more than $1.1 billion in lost revenue and nearly 23,000 fewer jobs.

Indo-Asian News Service