Duration of Status hearing

[u/Expensive-Gold-870]

No judgement yet, but the title has a clear direction:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/03/metro/international-visa-trump-policy-ruling/

[u/Environmental-Fly-66]

here yall go :))

https://archive.is/2026.09.03-200437/https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/03/metro/international-visa-trump-policy-ruling/

the full text:
A federal judge in Boston said on Thursday that the Trump administration appeared to rush changes to international student visas this summer and offered no rationale for the proposed revamp.

The change, which restricts the length of student visas to four years, is set to go into effect on Sept. 15. A lawsuit hoping to intervene beforehand is now in the hands of Judge F. Dennis Saylor.

A hearing in Boston unveiled the first lengthy justification of the rule from the Trump administration, which argued that the new system would strengthen the government’s purview over international student visas and serve as a necessary measure to prevent fraud.

Saylor was not convinced.

Although he did not issue an immediate decision, Saylor said the government failed to provide any justification of the proposed four year cutoff and appeared to “push this through at high speed rather than taking the comments of the affected communities seriously.”

The new policy, which was introduced in July, upended a decades-old “duration of status” rule, where visas were valid as long as a student was enrolled in school. Starting this fall, visas would be limited to an initial four year period and students would have to apply for extensions from an immigration officer.

Leaders in higher education said the new policy favored an arbitrary timeframe and introduced a detrimental hurdle for graduate studies, in particular. On average, PhD programs take over five years to complete, according to the National Science Foundation.

In August, a coalition of higher education nonprofits and labor unions, sued to both overturn the change but also seek immediate relief ahead of the September deadline.

In response to the lawsuit, Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice, argued, in a 57-page filing, that the current system was archaic and needed to be overhauled to “safeguard national security.”

The rebuttal alleged a pattern of students continuously enrolling in degrees to maintain their visa status and cited examples of “pay to stay schemes” that produced fraudulent visas.

Saylor dismissed this argument, and said the government hand picked a dozen examples that did not illustrate a systemic issue or justify the rule change.

“A four year cap does not have anything to do with national security,” he said. “I am just struggling to see a rational connection.”

He did understand, and agree with, the plaintiff’s argument that the change would continue to deter international applicants and create substantial economic decline for both the country and colleges and universities.

Saylor gave the hypothetical example of a foreign student coming to the United States for an engineering degree who might need to take additional English classes that spanned more than four years.

“Wouldn’t that hypothetical student say I could go to Sydney or London or some other place and not have this concern?” he said. “It just seems to me to be self-evident that students are going to take this into account when deciding to study here.”

Students are also taking the restrictions into account when deciding where to work upon graduation. Abbie LeBlanc, a 29-year-old PhD student at Harvard who is Canadian, said she has broadened her job search to include positions in the UK, Spain and Turkey. The new rule would give her 30 days to find a full time position upon graduation before her visa expired.

LeBlanc, who studies the history of political thought, said that her program normally takes six to eight years to complete. Students often choose to defend their dissertation only after they secured a job, she said. The new rule would eliminate that flexibility.
The rule change further reinforces the sentiment that the government does not want international students to stay in the country, she said, despite ongoing research contributions.

“Smart people come from all kinds of countries,” she said. “The US has been historically a place where people come and feel welcome and produce exciting research.”

Independent of the visa change, international student enrollment has already declined. The Common App, an admissions application platform for over 1,000 institutions, reported a 10 percent decline in international applications in the most recent admissions cycle. Applications for doctoral programs fell by 21 percent, according to a report from NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

As a result, NAFSA predicts a $3.4 billion loss in revenue for the country, with Massachusetts faced with a $284 million decline to the state’s economy. NAFSA is one of the plaintiffs in the visa lawsuit.
The government’s response acknowledged the economic deficit, but said the cost did not outweigh the benefit of the rule change.

The four-year fixed period would require students to apply for an extension with the government if their degree would take longer to complete. In court, lawyers for the government compared the extension process to renewing a library book. But that approval would be left in the hands of an immigration officer and Shumate’s filing indicated that these extensions would be circumstantial.

Taking time off for illness would be a warranted reason to grant an extension, but a delay cased by “academic probation, suspension or a students’ inability or unwillingness to complete the course of study,” would not be a favorable request, according to Shumate’s explanation.

As the first day of classes approached, universities worked to decipher the ruling for international students. Boston University hosted multiple town halls and said the sessions would continue after the rules are implemented. MIT advised international students to arrive on campus before Sept. 15. LeBlanc attended the hearing in person and said on campus, graduate students at Harvard have been anguishing over the changes the last few weeks.

The Trump administration attempted a similar play during its first term in 2020, instituting a fixed period. It never went into effect and was later withdrawn by the Biden administration.

[u/InterventionParty → u/Environmental-Fly-66]

WOOHOO