Trump's Government Plans To Tighten Visa Duration For Students And Media

JAKARTA - The United States government under the President plans to tighten the duration of visas for students, visitors to cultural exchanges and media, according to a draft government regulation issued on Wednesday, part of a firm action on immigration policies.

The proposed regulation will set a fixed period for a visa F for international students, a visa J that allows visitors to cultural exchange programs to work in the US and visa I for media journalists.

The visas are currently available for program duration or work based in the United States.

There are about 1.6 million international students with visas F in the US by 2024, according to US government data.

The US granted visas to around 355,000 exchange visitors and 13,000 media members in the 2024 fiscal year, starting on October 1, 2023.

The student visa period and the exchange visa will not be more than four years, according to the proposed regulations.

Meanwhile, visas for journalists - which can currently be valid for years - will last up to 240 days or, for Chinese citizens, 90 days. visa holders can apply for an extension, according to the proposal.

President Trump's administration said the proposed amendments were needed to better monitor and supervise visa holders as long as they were in the United States.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the move, reflecting proposals submitted in 2020 at the end of President Trump's first term.

Separately, NAFSA, a non-profit organization representing international educators in more than 4,300 institutions around the world, opposed the 2020 proposal and urged the Trump Administration to cancel it. The Democratic government under President Joe Biden at that time withdrew in 2021.

It is known that President Trump, who is from the Republican Party, began strict immigration action immediately after taking office in January.

This latest move will create new obstacles for international students, exchange workers and foreign journalists who have to apply for an extension of their stay in Uncle Sam's country instead of maintaining a more flexible legal status.

The administration of President Trump has stepped up surveillance of legal immigration, revoked student visas and student green cards at their ideological point of view, and revoked the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants.

In a memo dated August 22, US Citizenship and Immigration Services said they would continue visits that had long been inactive to the neighborhoods where citizenship applicants lived, to check what they called population status, moral character, and commitment to American ideals.