As a student who came to the United States in 2025 on an F-1 nonimmigrant student visa, seeing F-1 among those modified by the Trump Administration on July 16 was unsettling; immigration procedure changes have rarely been positive lately.
Right on theme, the substantial modifications overturned safeguards for international students that had not been challenged since 1987, according to Federal Register.
Set to take effect on Sept. 15, the admission period for F-1 visas will be capped at four years instead of extending for the period of the duration of status; the post-graduation “courtesy period” will be halved to 30 days, and lateral and reverse matriculation will be restricted.
Although students will be eligible for extensions to continue their studies in the U.S., it is difficult to find comfort in the fact that our education is now partially, if not entirely, governed by an administration that bears prejudice against foreigners. As such, it is jarringly evident that our futures are no longer certain as international students.
Feeling unwelcome in a country that was once a safe haven for most of us is now a reality for many; while added complications to legal procedures are not direct bans, they often feel like the first step towards it. This feels especially true when you consider that the Homeland Security website refers to the new rules as the “Final Rule to End Foreign Student Visa Abuse.”
Contrary to the aforementioned assertion, most of us have no intention of abusing any of the rights and privileges we were awarded when we first entered this country. On the contrary, many of us are here precisely because we want a chance at a proper life; a significant fraction of the world is born without the systemic and sociocultural advantages most of the U.S. offers.
Identifying as a part of the LGBTQ community is illegal in 66 countries and is punishable by death in a dozen of them, according to Human Rights Watch.
No country in the world has achieved full legal equality for women and girls, according to Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Our access to basic resources, including healthcare, education and economic independence, is heavily restricted in numerous countries from Afghanistan to the Republic of Congo.
Journalism, the thing I am allowed to pursue readily in the U.S., is met with imprisonment and even execution in other regions. Moreover, some of us international students feel that we cannot even comment on issues in our home countries for fear that we won’t be allowed to return.
The saddening reality is that many of us have no other option but to migrate to get the education and life we desire, the life others are awarded at birth at no extra cost. That is not to say we are particularly entitled to the United States’ resources; it is to elucidate that without them, some of us have no true future.
In the face of this adversity, the USC Office of International Services is trying to reassure the university’s current international student body by suggesting that their education isn’t at risk.
The department website states that any international student admitted under ‘Duration of Status’ who enters the U.S. before Sept. 15 will be allowed to remain in the country up until the program end date on their I-20, D-2019, OPT, STEM OPT or AT.
OIS, however, overlooks one crucial factor: most undergraduate I-20s have an end date set for four years by a Designated School Official authorized by the U.S government. Thus, current students who may study beyond the four-year mark face the same predicament as future admits.
Expediting our studies is not always feasible either. Several reasons can push students beyond the four-year mark: transfers who must fulfill additional course requirements, majors that traditionally take longer than four years, and students who have to work alongside their studies.
Not to mention, the four-year graduation “standard” is a myth: more than half of college students at 4-year-universities in the United States will graduate in more than 4 years, according to a comprehensive report put together by the Hechinger Report.
Amid endless college application preparation and advanced courses, we tend to forget that we were essentially children when we entered college. At 18, we are expected to pick the career we will do for a lifetime and are often told to choose between passion and survival, since not all careers offer the same stable futures. Is it truly surprising that a lot of us change our majors several times and end up having to study longer?
With all that said, we need the flexibility of the previous F-1 visas. Fortunately, we aren’t out of options yet. The new F-1 modifications are already being challenged.
Certain university groups and labor unions, from the Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM) to the Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), have filed lawsuits to block the new immigration rule. At the individual level, we aren’t entirely helpless yet either.
Starting Sept. 15, extension requests will be assessed at the federal level. However, anyone can extend their I-20 end dates until then by speaking with their advisor and filing a request with OIS.
My USC admissions letter congratulated me for staying dedicated in a time “of so much uncertainty and change.” It’s imperative, for all of us, that, in this era of reformation, we continue to chase a future where all have the same rights to education as the most privileged of us.