Already feeling under attack and facing increased government scrutiny, international college students balked this week at a new Trump administration proposal that could limit their stays in the United States to four years.
The proposed rule, which President Trump previously pitched during his first term and put out again on Wednesday, comes as the federal government has increasingly reviewed and revoked visas belonging to international students. His administration has frequently claimed, without evidence, that international students have helped subject college campuses to “foreign influence” from US adversaries — a suggestion colleges have denied.
“To me and other international students, this is really just another clear message that we are not welcome or safe in this country,” said Alfred Williamson, a Harvard University undergraduate student from Wales. “This is another attempt to dehumanize us, to tell us that we are not meant to be in this country, and to try to dissuade us from coming here — and the US will suffer as a result.”
If approved, the rule would implement a new fixed time limit on foreign students, who currently can stay for the length of their studies as long as they meet visa requirements. Under the proposed rule, international students who hold F visas could be admitted for periods “up to the duration of the program they are participating in, not to exceed a 4-year period.”
The rule would also place restrictions on exchange visitors and foreign media.
In a news release on the proposal, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said past administrations have been too lenient on foreign students and visa holders, allowing them “to remain in the U.S. virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amount of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantaging U.S. citizens.” The statement said the proposed rule would make it possible for the government “to properly oversee foreign students and their history.”
While conservatives have long advocated to limit the number of visas issued and their duration, organizations that support foreign students argue restricting their stays could unnecessarily disrupt students’ education and force some into an unlawful presence status if they don’t complete their programs in four years.
Just 3.67 percent of the roughly 1.3 million international students and exchange visitors overstayed their visas from October 2022 through September 2023, according to the Entry/Exit overstay report delivered to Congress in August 2024.
“Government interference into the academic realm in this way introduces a wholly unnecessary and new level of uncertainty to international student experience in the United States, as degree completion is now highly unpredictable,” said Fanta Aw, executive director of the nonprofit NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
The organization recently found international student enrollment could drop by more than 150,000 college students this fall. Aw added the proposed rule change will “certainly act as an additional deterrent to international students choosing to study in this country.”
Since Trump took office in January, his administration has adopted an aggressive posture toward international students. In April, it terminated thousands of foreign students’ visas based on criminal history checks, a move it reversed after facing court challenges. The next month, the Trump administration sought to revoke Harvard’s ability to host international students entirely. This summer, the administration paused student visa interviews for a period before reportedly instructing foreign officers to vet candidates’ social media for “hostile attitudes” toward the US.
And last week, the Trump administration told the Associated Press it was reviewing more than 55 million people with valid US visas for violations that could lead to deportation. The State Department said this month it had revoked more than 6,000 student visas as the Trump administration has imposed new measures to expand screening processes.
Trump’s first administration in 2020 proposed a similar term limit, which was not finalized before his term ended and then withdrawn by the Biden administration in 2021. Opponents of the term limit had, in public comment on the rule, cited concerns that many students seeking a bachelor’s degree finish in about five years, and graduate students, especially those in doctoral programs, can take even longer.
“People are working on life-saving drugs, robotics, what-have-you while actively contributing to the economy and teaching through the course of five or six year PhD programs,” said Sudipta Saha, a fifth-year doctoral candidate from Canada who is studying population health sciences at Harvard. “Cutting it to four years is clearly designed to discourage international students from coming and contributing to working in universities.”
Williamson, the Harvard undergraduate from Wales, said in recent weeks, some of his peers have been stopped and interrogated by border officials upon returning to the US. Some went as far as to show transcripts to prove they are students; Williamson himself deleted social media apps and messages he worried border officials could use as grounds to prevent him from reentering the country.
International students, he said, “feel like we do not have the right to freedom of speech at all.”
Brown University’s president said Thursday about 15 international students were “unable to reach campus” due to difficulty in obtaining student visas under the Trump administration.
And Harvard’s Graduate Student Union, in a statement, said some of its student workers, too, have faced challenges in reentering the country because of travel bans ordered by the Trump administration. The union wants schools to do more to legally and financially support students and ensure they can continue their education and research.
“A lot of people are just stressed about coming back to the country, not just because of specific actions that have already been taken, but what might happen just because of harassment that is totally at the discretion of what border officials are feeling at the time of entry,” said Saha, who also serves as the union’s vice president.
Haben Abrha, an international student in Harvard’s Kennedy School from Eritrea, said as a former policy officer, she understands the federal government could be making changes to “reduce the administrative challenges associated with indefinite enrollments.”
“At the same time,” she added, “international students make significant contributions to Harvard and other US universities through research, innovation, and cultural exchange.”
The proposed rule, meanwhile, would also affect foreign media personnel, such as reporters, with I visas. They could be admitted for a period of “up to 240 days” and could then qualify for an extension period of another 240 days “but no longer than the length of the temporary activity or assignment.”
Anjali Huynh can be reached at anjali.huynh@globe.com.