Overview
- A coalition of universities, labor unions and advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Tuesday seeking to vacate the DHS rule and win a preliminary injunction before the Sept. 15 effective date.
- The DHS rule ends the decades‑long 'duration of status' practice and generally limits F and J visa stays to four years while capping most I‑visa journalist stays at 240 days and 90 days for covered PRC passport holders.
- Under the new process, extensions beyond the caps must be filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and include biometric collection plus security, identity and fraud screening instead of being handled by campus officials.
- The complaint says DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to analyze costs and benefits, ignoring the 22,000 public comments, and not considering less burdensome alternatives that would avoid disruption to graduate and research training.
- Universities say the rule is already reducing applications and prompting withdrawals with large economic estimates tied to lost enrollment, DHS defends the change as an anti‑fraud measure, and courts will now weigh whether to pause the policy while litigation proceeds.