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What changed,
and when it bites.

Every rule change affecting F-1 students that has a date attached. Each one links to the Federal Register or the Code of Federal Regulations — the law itself, not somebody’s blog post about it.

NYISA · 8 entries · last checked 15 September 2026
We are not immigration advisers. This page tells you what the rule says and where to read it. What it means for your case is a question for your school’s international student office.

Duration of status did not end. A court blocked the rule on 14 September.

Blocked nationwide · The rule was to take effect on 15 September. One day before, a federal judge postponed it and barred DHS from implementing it while the case continues. Your I-94 still says D/S. The government can appeal — read the first entry below.

Where things stand

What is operating right now, and what a court has stopped.

Blocked by a court

Duration of status was to end today. A court blocked it.

This rule would have ended D/S. Instead of staying in status as long as you are enrolled, you would have been admitted only until the program end date on your I-20, capped at four years, plus a 30-day departure period. It did not take effect. A federal court postponed the effective date on 14 September, the day before — see the entry above. Nothing about your current I-94 changes today. We are leaving this entry here, in full, because the government can appeal and the rule is not dead.

F and J nonimmigrants will be admitted until the completion date provided by the DSO/ARO in SEVIS, not to exceed four years, plus a departure period of 30 days.

Final rule, 91 FR 44976 · new 8 CFR 214.1(m)(1) checked 15 September 2026

Published 17 July 2026. Classified a major rule subject to congressional review — DHS says that if the effective date changes it will publish a further notice.

In force

A federal court blocked the rule, one day before it was to start.

Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV granted a preliminary injunction in Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration et al. v. DHS (D. Mass.), postponing the effective date of the rule and barring DHS and ICE from implementing it while the case continues. The order is nationwide, not limited to the plaintiffs. The court found the rule likely arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. Duration of status therefore remains in place. If you are on F-1 or J-1 today, your I-94 still says D/S and nothing changed on 15 September.

This is not the end. A preliminary injunction is a pause, not a final judgment, and the government can appeal to the First Circuit. Watch this page.

NAFSA, legal challenge to the D/S final rule · contemporaneous reporting, 14–15 Sept 2026 checked 15 September 2026

Secondary sources only — we read NAFSA's litigation page and news reports, not the court's order itself. The case is No. 1:26-cv-13799 in the District of Massachusetts.

Challenged in court

A coalition sued to stop that rule.

NAFSA, the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, AICUM, the AFT and several unions filed a complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts — Presidents' Alliance et al. v. DHS et al., No. 1:26-cv-13799 — asking the court to block the rule before it takes effect. Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV heard the motion in person on 3 September 2026 and ruled eleven days later. The motion was granted — see the entry above.

NAFSA press release, 18 Aug 2026 · Fragomen (docket number), 18 Aug checked 15 September 2026

Correction, 15 September 2026: this entry previously gave the hearing date as 9 September. The hearing was held on 3 September. We had the date from a secondary summary and did not check the docket.

Not being collected

The $100,000 H-1B fee is not being collected.

A district court vacated the fee on 8 June 2026 as an unlawful tax, and on 24 July the First Circuit refused to pause that ruling while the government appeals — so the fee is not enforceable right now. It is not over: the merits appeal is pending, and a court in Washington DC reached the opposite conclusion in a separate case, which is the kind of split that reaches the Supreme Court. Note that the fee never applied to a change of status from F-1 OPT in the first place.

First Circuit stay denied, 24 July 2026 checked 15 September 2026

Secondary sources only — we could not retrieve the court's own filings.

In force

The H-1B lottery is now weighted by salary level.

Registrations no longer get one equal ticket each. Entries scale with the Department of Labor wage level of the offered job, and USCIS selects from the highest level downward. New graduates are almost always offered Level 1 wages, which is the bottom of that order. This is the single reason a cap-exempt employer — a university, an affiliated nonprofit, a nonprofit research organization — is worth so much to a new graduate: those employers skip the lottery altogether.

See which NYC employers are cap-exempt

Final rule, 90 FR 60864 checked 15 September 2026

In force

Cap-gap now runs to 1 April, not 30 September.

If your OPT ends while an H-1B petition asking for an October start is pending, cap-gap keeps you working. The H-1B modernisation rule extended that bridge from 30 September to 1 April of the following fiscal year — up to six extra months of lawful work while USCIS processes the petition.

Final rule, 89 FR 103054 checked 15 September 2026

Still ahead

Dates that have not arrived yet.

Takes effect

File OPT by this date and you skip Form I-539 entirely.

The rule carves out one big exception. If you timely and properly file Form I-765 for post-completion OPT or the STEM OPT extension on or before 18 March 2027, you do not have to file a separate I-539 extension for that OPT period — the employment application is enough. Read this with the injunction in mind. This carve-out lives inside the rule a court blocked on 14 September, so for now there is no I-539 requirement to be excused from. If the rule is revived on appeal, this date matters again — and filing OPT early costs you nothing either way.

DHS will not require those aliens in F-1 status who have timely and properly filed an application for post-completion OPT or a STEM OPT on or before March 18, 2027 to file an EOS application.

Final rule, 91 FR 44976 checked 15 September 2026

Takes effect

If you are already here on D/S, this is your outer limit.

Students admitted under the old duration-of-status rule are not thrown out on 15 September. You keep the program end date on your current I-20, up to four years from 15 September 2026, plus the departure period — 14 November 2030 for F students (60 days) and 15 October 2030 for J exchange visitors (30 days). This too is part of the rule now blocked, and applies only if the rule is revived. That is a ceiling, not a promise: your I-20 end date still governs.

...not to exceed a period of 4 years from September 15, 2026, plus the departure period of 60 days for F nonimmigrants, which is November 14, 2030, and 30 days for J nonimmigrants, which is October 15, 2030.

Final rule, 91 FR 44976 checked 15 September 2026

What it costs

The fees, from the regulation.

Filing fees are set in the Code of Federal Regulations, not on a blog. These are the current amounts. Filing online is $50 cheaper than paper for most forms (8 CFR 106.1(g)). There is no longer a separate biometrics fee on these forms — if a guide adds one, that guide is out of date.

FormPaperOnlineAuthority
I-539Extend or change nonimmigrant status$470$4208 CFR 106.2(a)(26)
I-765Employment authorization — OPT and STEM OPT$520$4708 CFR 106.2(a)(44)
I-901SEVIS fee, F students$350—8 CFR 214.13(d)(1)
I-901SEVIS fee, J exchange visitors$220—8 CFR 214.13(d)(2)

Source: 8 CFR part 106 and 8 CFR 214.13, read 15 September 2026.

Honesty

What we could not verify.

Some numbers circulate everywhere and we still could not trace them to a primary source, usually because the agency blocks automated access to its own fee pages. We would rather leave a hole than fill it with a number we cannot stand behind.

  • The $250 Visa Integrity Fee. Widely reported and apparently being collected at some consular posts, but we could not confirm the amount or the refund procedure in a primary source.
  • Selection odds under the weighted lottery. The often-quoted “about 16% for Level 1” comes from private modelling of the first year’s results, not from USCIS. We are not repeating a number we cannot source.
  • Premium processing prices. USCIS blocks automated access to its fee pages. Check uscis.gov directly before relying on any figure.

Also on this site

Which employers skip the lottery.

Now that the H-1B lottery is weighted against entry-level salaries, cap-exempt employers matter more than ever. We publish every employer that sponsored an H-1B in New York City since 2019, with salaries, and a filter for the ones that never enter the lottery at all.

Open the sponsor list