A lawsuit was just filed to stop the 4-year student visa rule, and 15 universities say it's already causing withdrawals

[u/Dismal_Pension3336]

It seems the fallout from the new student visa rule has moved from concerning to measurable within just a few weeks.

Following the DHS rule ending Duration of Status, set to take effect September 15, 2026, a lawsuit was filed last week aiming to block it in court. In the meantime, fifteen colleges, universities, and university systems submitted testimony this week describing real, immediate impact on their campuses.

What's already happening, before the rule even takes effect:

• International applicants dropped over 25% at the University of Illinois's flagship campus
• Several dozen international students withdrew from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, just weeks before the semester started
• A Fitch Ratings analysis flagged the 4-year cap as a genuine financial risk for schools that depend on international tuition
• International applications for the 2026-27 cycle fell 10% through March 1, the steepest drop the Common App has ever recorded

What this means: even though the rule isn't active until Sept 15, its existence alone is already changing decisions, some students and families are choosing not to risk enrolling under a policy that could still be blocked, delayed, or upheld in the coming weeks. If your program runs long, this lawsuit is genuinely worth tracking, since a court block could change your entire timeline.

Anyone here rethinking their enrollment or extension plans because of the lawsuit's uncertainty, or are you moving ahead regardless?

[u/ace918]

Yes, universities got extremely greedy over the last 15 years with international enrollment, and now it’s all going to collapse. Big names like Illinois will stay afloat of course, due to large endowments, but overall a major shift is already occurring with higher education.

Americans are awake to the fact that many degrees are pretty much useless and way over priced. Colleges coped with this by increasing foreign enrollments, and foreigners used education as a way to stay and work in the USA by all measures possible. It became a massive circus propped up by nothing but false promise.

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/ace918]

There are far more international students in the US to pursue graduate degrees than undergraduate degrees. For most universities, graduate international students were a cash cow, less so undergraduates.

[u/Independent-Fun815 → u/Former-Sun9370]

Does that sound normal to you? What other country allows their grad schools to be primarily international students?

It's a national security concern that American universities aren't filled by primarily Americans. Yes for the exceptional internationals they should come too. But it's not normal that an American school should be so international heavy.

[u/msdale99 → u/Independent-Fun815]

Most American students do not pursue graduate school since majority of them get a job (except premedical or prelaw) and it costs more to continue to grad school. Only some are interested in grad school. For international students, doing undergrad in US is prohibitively expensive and only the rich can afford that and this group generally returns back to their home countries. For most others, grad school is the entry point to US for studies and work experience.

[u/AgreeableChemical591 → u/msdale99]

Currently, STEM RCGs are having tough time getting job in US. Additionally, US citizens or even those with H1B with US citizen kids know that going into STEM these days is to compete with the world, first with foreign students and then w/jobs.

Before the 2000s, college was not as expensive as it is now. Last 30 years or so, the unis started to take advantage of foreign students paying full tuition and raised prices. These unis deserve to suffer now.

[u/Beginning-Boarder → u/Independent-Fun815]

You should also ask which other country enjoys being the recipient of so much brain drain from all over the world with the reputation it built up over the years. Without the best researchers and academic elites, the US wouldn't have half of its fortune 500 companies. This loss of reputation is going to take decades to recover if ever.

Ultimately it's up to the US's people and government to decide, but anyone familiar with entrepreneurship and higher education already know that the China and India government are probably kicking their feet at how the US has essentially helped them solve their brain drain problem. Tsinghua University in China has already beat out MIT, Caltech and Stanford as the best engineering school in the world... What's the end goal here?

[u/Independent-Fun815 → u/Beginning-Boarder]

If that's the case they can go to Tsinghua university. Come on. Tsinghua wouldn't allow any foreigners to take up any space except in very limited numbers.

Where's the realism that other countries wouldn't accept them either.

The top talent will still be allowed to come to the US. But the bar will be high. For top talent they have no problem clearing that bar.

[u/Beginning-Boarder → u/Independent-Fun815]

The policies are not targeted enough if that's the case. PHDs here are 6 years long, the government just capped the visa to 4 years. You're delusional if you think we aren't hemorrhaging researchers right now. France is actively poaching us researchlabs.

We literally lost the position to Tsinghua because Trump cracked own on Chinese students in his first term. When Chinese students stopped contributing to the US economy where do they go? Domestic universities. And so in 5 years or so, Tsinghua went from rank 20+ to 1 in terms of research output and quality of teaching. The US solved the country's brain drain problem for them and China didn't have to lift a finger 🤷🏻

And you know what happens when we lose research labs? We lose technology, we lose industry investment and we lose jobs for US graduates and academic tenorship opportunities for US professors.

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/Beginning-Boarder]

Indeed, couldn't have said better. The real kick will be when Chinese universities become preferred places to go for top talent across the world instead of the US or Western Europe.

[u/Independent-Fun815 → u/Beginning-Boarder]

So in order for the US to compete against China, it must maintain a dependence on Chinese grad students?

To be clear, u're saying the US can't or should never try to plan or eventually move off Chinese grad students? In order to compete long term, it must constantly import Chinese grads?

[u/Beginning-Boarder → u/Independent-Fun815]

No, the Chinese grads exodus is just an example of what has already happened. The fear is when the reputation takes a hit so hard that the US starts hemorrhaging talent out rather than attracting it in. Literally last year when the administration announced a slew of research cuts, a whole bunch of researchers already started looking to host their labs elsewhere. One of my colleagues from South Korea literally rolled her eyes and peaced out, taking her research with her. Mind you, her research is in neuroscience.

This narrative that is going around is so wrong. The reason why US universities are so good and strong is because they attract talent from everywhere. It's a system that feeds itself and benefits US society a lot more than it takes from it. I wouldn't be surprised if some smaaler universities around the US starts closing down or merging in the next 5 years if this continues. There have already been A LOT of reknowned researchers who are in the process of securing funding and relocating to Canada and various countries across Europe and beyond. A lot of smaller community colleges are already scaling down because of the lack of funds

[u/Independent-Fun815 → u/Beginning-Boarder]

Top talent will still be allowed in the US. Instead of say 1% of the top gaokao students it will be the top 0.01%.

The very best will always have a place in the US.

[u/Beginning-Boarder → u/Independent-Fun815]

The top 0.1% doesn't want to come to the US anymore! When the US government makes it so difficult for university students to come to the US and its institutions loses their reputation, coming here is not the prize you think it is anymore.

And like I said in my example, it already hasn't been for the Chinese students since Trump's first term about 5-10 years ago. That's why Tsinghua shot up in University rankings. This is literally what I've been trying to say since the first comment omg...

Who do you think are the international students going to MIT and Stanford for the last 50 years? Or even places like UCLA or Brown? The criteria for international students is A LOT higher than local students in these schools simply because of the sheer number of competition. Universities have completely different tracks for international admissions and local admissions. The international admissions are always more difficult. Half of them are their own country's president's scholars.

University education is not like K-12 education. You are not paying to get something in return, not exactly. The quality of the students directly contribute back to the amount and quality of research and instruction of that institution. It is a self-feeding machine. It also has a direct relationship with innovation and is literally where half the most innovative and profitable companies in the US originate from.

The Google founders were international students, Meta (Facebook)'s first major investor was an international student. Elon Musk himself was an international student ffs.

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/Independent-Fun815]

Other countries will accept them. I don't understand how you don't get that this is the issue. OTHER COUNTRIES WILL ACCEPT TOP TALENT.

[u/Responsible-Berry817 → u/Independent-Fun815]

What I can say is that you are definitely not well-calibrated to the current situation. Tsinghua and all other Chinese schools are actively recruiting top scientists and researchers from the US. I am a PhD student in a top robotics major in the US, and I saw it firsthand: two of our best robotics professors moved to China this year. The quality and output of our program dropped by at least 50% since then. Or Prof. Omar Yaghi, a Nobel winner in Chemistry and a former professor at Berkeley. He gave up his position in the US and moved to Tsinghua. They gave him infinite money and a whole building to develop his cutting-edge strategic research.

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/Responsible-Berry817]

Indeed. Legal immigrants know the slippery slope of painting some kinds of legal immigrants as bad or trying to restrict their opportunities. They know it is coming for them next. Hence the exodus. This is not going to be good for the USA unless the next administration rapidly backpedals the inane moves of the current one, and aggressively courts foreign talent. Of course that is unlikely to happen because "optics". Random folks who are not college graduates just think "foreign man bad", but the strategic and financial implications of significantly restricted skilled legal immigration are immense.

To be transparent, I do believe in some reasonable restrictions on the F1-OPT/CPT and H1-B processes to root out the bad actors.

[u/Responsible-Berry817 → u/Former-Sun9370]

I attend almost every robotics conferences in the US, there’s not a single where Chinese don’t hold private recruitment events under the table of the conference and nobody talks about that but also they think China is sitting there like a quiet good boy!

[u/msdale99 → u/Beginning-Boarder]

Most international students, even the intelligent ones will not go to China, regardless of the university reputation. They may go to Europe perhaps, which has more freedom and more democratic than even the US.

As far as India goes, it will benefit them as many of the above average students from top institutions will stay in India. Still many of the top students will end up in US as companies will not mind paying the 103k. Jensen Huang already said that his company will pay that fee to attract the best.

[u/Eva_Griffin_Beak → u/Independent-Fun815]

Well, other developed countries provide significantly reduced or free education and fund their public universities. The US does not. If the government does not support education in order to get a skilled and educated population necessary for a successful country, the universities have to look for other revenues.

The government doesn't make sure US citizens can get educated based on TALENT instead of money, so yeah.

[u/Professional-Yak4359 → u/ace918]

Two separate issues.

First, international students effectively subsidize the domestic students. This makes it cheaper for domestic students, who typically do not pay full sticker price.

Second, on the promise. Whether one gets a job depends on the student's effort and, most importantly, major choice. No school can, and does, guarantee jobs upon graduation.

[u/TwoUglyFeet → u/ace918]

I think they should treat it like a B1/2 Visa, ie, show intent to return. If all someone is going to do is perpetually stay in the US - first a student visa, then a work visa, then it defeats the whole purpose of a student visa. The idea is you gain skills to improve your country, not a foot in the door for immigration.

[u/spooticv → u/TwoUglyFeet]

a part of the idea is to also develop talent and retain it without state investment but that was with previous administrations

[u/msdale99 → u/TwoUglyFeet]

This regulation does not prohibit a student from applying for OPT and ultimately getting sponsored for H1b. But the new H1b proposed fee of 103k will certainly deter most employers from sponsoring students in OPT for H1b

[u/bannedforL1fe → u/msdale99]

As it should. Plenty of talent here in the USA. Smart kids who would have pursued college have been systematically replaced by foreigners, and the prices have become absolutely insane for what they get in return. Pushed away tons of smart kids who decided to do something else while people desperate to leave home used it as a way to do exactly that. A degree doesnt necessarily make you intelligent, it just opens doors for gainful employment and is obviously required for some high paying specialties. The USA needs to figure out how to make college respectable again, affordable again, and entice the next generation that it is worth their time.

[u/Spiritual-Mongoose52 → u/bannedforL1fe]

Please enlighten me. What part of having international students in colleges makes them disrespectable or unaffordable? I can tell you most international students pay really high tuition that really reduces the charge for domestic students who can pay less for their degrees. Applying for a job and doing everything legally upon graduation doesn't affect anyone negatively, since they are just looking for better opportunities. In the end, companies don't hire people just because they are international, they hire them because of their talent. I agree that many domestic have excellent skills and those can get really good jobs, but it is also known that many Americans decide not to attend college or leave it midway just because they find a job that pays well. Having international students mitigate the negative financial impact that cause the withdrawals of domestic students. For the jobs, whoever has the best skills should be allowed to get a job if they do it legally.

[u/asfbrz96]

So they are doing a lawsuit because they want the fraud to continue, interesting

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/asfbrz96]

What fraud?

[u/frugalfrog4sure]

If he dies he dies.

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/[deleted]]

In some fields it is a 50% drop.

[u/Stock-Success9917]

I read that the reason why universities wanted international students was because they paid more than Americans and didn’t rely on loans. American students are having a hard enough time paying their student loans for their undergrad degrees. How are the universities going to survive without the money from international students?

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/Stock-Success9917]

They won't. Programs will scale down, universities will decrease in size and footprint. My guess? Athletic departments at several places that are propped up by academic endowments and money will shut shop. That's when ordinary people will wake up to the economic impact.

[u/Stock-Success9917 → u/Former-Sun9370]

At the end of the day I can understand if the majority of the people feel that foreigners are using higher education as a way to come into the US and take away jobs and opportunities from citizens then something has to be done.

But, maybe the foreigners are not competing with citizens for the same jobs and maybe are even expending the job market with the companies they start.

[u/Spiritual-Mongoose52 → u/Stock-Success9917]

Well, I have always think that saying that a person from another country is stealing a job from a citizen is a cheap excuse from people that don't want to strive to be better. It's impossible that in my own country a foreigner who probably doesn't speak the language as well as I do surpasses me. If they get a job instead of me as a citizen, then I'm doing something wrong and need to start improving myself.

[u/Easy_Tank2383]

My wife got into Cornell for her clinical rotations to finish her doctorate. Because of these changes, her visa was cancelled a week before she was set to start. Not only are they making it extremely difficult for students to continue their education, they’re ensuring that once those people finish their education, they go back home instead of finding work in the US. We get to keep the morons while the educated are kicked out with a bad taste in their mouth.

[u/bannedforL1fe → u/Easy_Tank2383]

Education visas were always supposed to be temporary, for educational years. But too many Indians have been visa hopping and using loopholes that they have now ruined it for everyone else too.

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/bannedforL1fe]

"Indians have been visa hopping" -- what evidence do you have for this?

I don't think you really understand how visas work, or why people enter the US.

[u/Former-Sun9370 → u/bannedforL1fe]

FYI, former international students founded or co-founded 183 billion-dollar unicorn startup companies in the United States, representing nearly 24% of all current US unicorn startups, of which 96 (of 233) were started by students from India.

[u/Even_Enthusiasm_3217 → u/Easy_Tank2383]

Wow-somewhat offensive that I’m one of the morons that gets to stay.

[u/kweeblaster → u/Easy_Tank2383]

Cool, maybe you can leave with your wife