The proposed rule, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, would directly affect thousands of foreign nationals, including students studying in the United States, people working in the United States, and journalists.

According to the new proposal, the duration of students’ visas will be fixed and applications for visa extensions will be allowed only if necessary.

Currently, nonimmigrant students, exchange visitors, and foreign journalists are granted DS status upon entry into the United States, allowing them to remain in the United States until their purpose is fulfilled. The new policy will eliminate this and set a fixed period of time for them to remain in the United States.

The proposed new rule would allow visa holders to stay in the US for a limited period of time. That is, if the journalism or study is not completed within the specified period, the visa holder will either have to leave the US or apply for an extension of the visa.

The new rules will set a specific period of time, and if visa holders want to stay in the US beyond the specified time, they will have to apply for an extension of stay. Biometrics may also be required when applying for a visa extension.

The proposed new rule would allow students to stay for a maximum of four years, depending on the length of their studies. Similarly, foreign journalists coming on I visas would be allowed up to 240 days.

According to this new rule, students will have to complete their I-20 at the school that issued them at the beginning of their first academic year. It also prohibits postgraduate students from changing programs during their studies and limits program changes to only the highest academic level.

The departure period for students after the completion of the program will be reduced from 60 days to 30 days, while language training students will be limited to a total stay of 24 months. This policy change will affect a large number of people. In fiscal year 2024 alone, the US issued 400,737 student visas, 12,924 journalist visas, and 322,820 exchange visitor visas.

In fiscal year 2023, CBP admitted more than 1.7 million foreign students, more than 543,000 exchange visitors, and 32,470 foreign media representatives to the United States.

Public comments will be accepted online for 30 days after the rules are published in the Federal Register on Thursday. Comments on the information collection requirements will be accepted within 60 days, or until October 27, 2025. After considering the comments, the agency will publish a final rule, which will include a timeline for implementation. This process typically takes a few months to complete.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has attempted to introduce such a policy. A similar proposed rule with the same title was published on September 25, 2020, with the aim of setting specific time periods for students, exchange visitors, and journalists.

That proposal aimed to limit the initial stay to a maximum of four years for most visa holders. At that time, a shorter period of two years was proposed for citizens of countries on the list of countries with high visa overstay rates, i.e., overstay rates of more than 10 percent.

According to the FY 2023 report, the overall overstay rate of Nepalese students in the US is 10.2 percent, compared to 16.65 percent in FY 2022.