WASHINGTON — For the graduate student who flew home for a family wedding last August, re-entering the United States after September 15 will be a fundamentally different legal experience. The immigration document that has governed the status of foreign students for more than six decades, the Duration of Status designation, expires on that date, replaced by a fixed admit-until date that comes with an expiration clock the moment it is stamped.
The Department of Homeland Security finalized the change in July, publishing a rule that eliminates the D/S designation from F-1 and J-1 visas effective September 15, 2026. Congress had sixty days under the Congressional Review Act to block or delay the regulation. That window has now closed without action, locking in a change that affects roughly 1.5 million students and exchange visitors currently studying or working in the United States.
What changes most immediately is what happens at the port of entry. Under the old system, an F-1 student was admitted for “duration of status,” meaning they could remain as long as they were in active academic standing, with a 60-day grace period after program completion. Under the new rule, an immigration officer stamps an Admit Until Date on the I-94 arrival record, tied to the program end date listed on the student’s I-20 or DS-2019 form, with a 30-day grace period rather than 60. The cap on any single admission is four years, regardless of how long the academic program runs.
The Duration of Status designation was introduced decades ago to give foreign students administrative flexibility tied to academic standing rather than a fixed calendar date. The new system is designed to make nonimmigrant stays numerically bounded. The practical consequence falls hardest on two groups: students whose programs span more than four years, and students who travel internationally after September 14.
Any F-1 or J-1 student who crosses a border and re-enters the United States after the effective date will receive a new I-94 with a fixed date. That fixed date governs their legal stay. Students who are already in the United States on D/S status and do not travel abroad are in a legally protected position. DHS says such students do not need to obtain new I-94 records before the rule takes effect, with their status automatically protected until either their program end date or four years from September 15, 2026, whichever comes first.
For students whose Admit Until Date will expire before the end of their academic program, two extension paths exist. The first is filing Form I-539 with USCIS before the current AUD expires. The second is departing the United States and re-entering, which resets the I-94 clock. That second option creates its own complications for students mid-degree, particularly those facing financial constraints or pending academic transitions.
Optional Practical Training and Curricular Practical Training timelines are tied to the I-20 program end date rather than to D/S status directly, so most OPT participants will see no immediate disruption. What remains unclear is how AUD expiration will interact with pending OPT applications that straddle program end dates, an issue immigration attorneys have flagged as unresolved going into the September deadline.
The rule also affects J-1 exchange visitors in programs with variable or open-ended durations, and it introduces a separate change for journalists on I visas, who will face a 240-day admission ceiling. DHS has not published detailed criteria for I-visa extensions, leaving that community with limited guidance as the date arrives.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem framed the changes as necessary for ensuring that admitted students’ legal status has measurable boundaries rather than an open-ended duration tied to academic good standing. The administration has pursued a broad suite of immigration changes since January 2025, and the Duration of Status elimination fits within that effort to make nonimmigrant visa periods discrete and enforceable. According to published reports, approximately 1.5 million people currently hold active F-1 or J-1 status in the United States.
The change does not affect the underlying F-1 or J-1 visa stamp in a student’s passport, issued by a U.S. consulate, which governs entry. The I-94 Admit Until Date determines how long a student may remain after entry. Students whose consular visa stamp expires while they are lawfully present inside the United States are not required to renew it domestically, but if they travel abroad after the stamp expires, they will need a new visa before returning.
Universities across the country have been notifying students and international offices since July. The guidance from most schools has been conservative: avoid international travel in the weeks immediately around September 15, verify I-20 program end dates, and consult a designated school official before booking flights. The approximately two-month window between the rule’s publication and its effective date, according to published guidance from university immigration offices, has struck some administrators as compressed for a change of this scope.
What none of the official guidance yet addresses is how the new AUD system will interact with academic programs that shift in duration mid-degree. Students who switch majors, change degree levels, or encounter delays that extend their time to completion had some administrative flexibility under D/S. Under AUD, each change will likely require an I-20 program extension and potentially a corresponding I-94 update. Whether USCIS has the processing capacity to handle that volume of incremental extension requests in a timely way remains an open question as the deadline arrives in two weeks.
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