On 17 July 2026 the Department of Homeland Security published a final rule titled Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media. It takes effect on 15 September 2026.
For roughly forty years, F and J nonimmigrants have been admitted for duration of status, shown on the Form I-94 as D/S. There was no end date. As long as the person stayed enrolled and complied with the rules of their category, their admission continued. That ends.
What replaces it
From 15 September, F and J nonimmigrants will be admitted until a specific date recorded on the I-94, known as the Admit Until Date, or AUD. The period runs up to the length of the program listed on the Form I-20 for F students or the Form DS-2019 for J exchange visitors, not to exceed four years, plus 30 days for arrival and an additional 30 days for departure.
Anyone who needs more time must either file an extension of stay with USCIS on Form I-539, or depart and seek readmission.
The four-year figure is widely misread
The rule does not impose a lifetime four-year limit on studying or conducting research in the United States. Four years is the maximum length of a single admission or extension period.
A student in a six-year doctoral program can still complete it. What changes is that they must obtain another period of authorized stay before the current I-94 expires, rather than relying on continued enrollment alone.
Who needs to act, and when
The rule includes transition provisions, and they matter more than the headline.
F students who were admitted under duration of status and are present in the United States on 15 September 2026 may generally remain without filing an extension of stay, up to the program end date on their Form I-20, or the end of post-completion OPT or STEM OPT that is valid on the effective date, not to exceed 14 November 2030. That is four years plus a sixty-day departure period.
In practice, many doctoral students will continue for several years after the rule takes effect without taking immediate immigration action. The transition ends for an individual once they travel and are readmitted under the new rule, or once USCIS adjudicates an extension of stay. Either event produces a new I-94 with a date-specific AUD.
The change nobody is talking about
The rule introduces a regulatory concept called educational objectives, which DHS defines broadly as majors or educational levels, and places it in the same provision that governs school transfers. That creates new limits on changing majors, transferring schools, or pursuing an additional or lower-level degree. For students who change direction mid-program, this may prove more consequential than the admission date itself.
