Under the new regulations, the student and exchange visa periods ⁠would be no longer than four years. The visa for journalists — which currently can last years — would be for up to 240 days or, in the case of Chinese nationals, 90 days. The visa holders could apply for extensions, it said.

The regulations also prohibit graduate students from changing their “educational objectives” at any point, or from transferring to another school without authorisation. They halve the amount of time students have to leave the US after completing their degree or training, from 60 to 30 days.

The new regulations will come into effect 60 days from publication in the federal register, subject to Congressional review.

Among Indian students, the US is a favoured destination for higher education. As of January 2025, there were about 300,000 Indian students in the US, mostly in graduate (Masters) programmes in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.

According to the US State Department report, in 2024, 90,129 Indians got F (student) visas, 15,208 got J (exchange visitor) visas, and 426 got I (journalist) visas.

After the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown last year, the number of F-1 visas issued to Indian students fell sharply by 69 per cent in June-July 2025 as compared to the previous year, from 41,336 in June-July 2024 to 12,776 visas last year.

According to the DHS, there were over 1.8 million student visa admissions in total in 2024, a more than 11% increase over the previous year. The US granted visas to more than 500,000 exchange visitors and 37,300 members of the media in fiscal year 2024, which began on ⁠October 1, 2023, it said.

The significant increase in the volume of such visitors “poses a challenge to DHS’s ability to monitor and oversee these non-immigrants while they are in the United States,” it said. DHS said it has many ‌examples of students ⁠and exchange visitors staying for decades on their visas.

Visa holders who want to stay in the US beyond their fixed period of admission will need to apply to DHS for an extension or gain readmission by travelling abroad and then re-entering the US, DHS said.

The rule’s publication has been widely anticipated in recent months, after DHS submitted it to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in May, which finished reviewing the rule in mid-June.

— With Reuters inputs from Washington DC