International students planning to study in the United States will soon face more paperwork, tighter deadlines and greater interaction with immigration authorities after the Trump administration replaced the decades-old "Duration of Status" (D/S) system with fixed admission periods for F-1 students.
While the change has widely been described as a student visa overhaul, immigration lawyers say the biggest shift is not to the visa itself but to a student's immigration status after entering the US. Under the new rule, students will no longer remain in the country simply by maintaining valid student status. Instead, they will receive a fixed period of admission tied to the length of their academic programme, capped at four years.
