Duration of Status (D/S) Guide 2026: What It Is, the Blocked Rule, and What to Do Now

Duration of status — D/S on your Form I-94 — is the rule that lets F-1 students and J-1 exchange visitors stay in the United States for as long as they keep their status, with no fixed end date stamped on their record. In July 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a final rule that would end D/S and replace it with fixed admission periods of up to four years. One day before it was due to take effect, a federal court blocked it nationwide. As of November 10, 2026, duration of status is still the law, the 60-day F-1 grace period still applies, and no F-1 or J-1 student needs to file an extension of stay. This guide explains what D/S is, how to keep it, what ends it, the unlawful presence rules that follow a violation, and the full litigation timeline — with the court’s next steps and the F-1 to H-1B path that follows graduation.

Duration of status in 2026 — what is in effect, proposed, or blocked

Four different 2026 developments get mixed up in social media posts about student visas. They are not the same thing, and none of them changes anything for students today. The one that would — the fixed-admission rule — is blocked. This table is the short version; the detail is in the sections below.

What duration of status means

When a Customs and Border Protection officer admits most nonimmigrants, the officer stamps a fixed departure date on their Form I-94 arrival record. F-1 students, J-1 exchange visitors and their dependents are the exception. Their I-94 shows two letters instead of a date: D/S, short for duration of status.

D/S means your authorized stay lasts as long as you maintain the conditions of your status, not until a calendar date. For an F-1 student, that means staying enrolled full time at a SEVP-certified school, making normal progress toward the degree on your Form I-20, and doing only authorized work. For a J-1 exchange visitor, it means completing the approved exchange program on your Form DS-2019. The length of the program varies from person to person, so the admission period is tied to the program instead of a date.

D/S does not mean an unlimited stay, and it does not mean your status cannot end. It ends when the activity ends — when you finish your program and any authorized practical training, when you stop maintaining status, or when your SEVIS record is terminated. The sections below cover each of those endings, because the ending is where the consequences live.

The system is old. In 1978, the Immigration and Naturalization Service published a final rule admitting F students for duration of status (43 FR 54618, November 22, 1978). Before that, students were admitted for a fixed period tied to their program and had to apply to the government for extensions. D/S moved that job to the schools: the Designated School Official, or DSO, manages the I-20 and the SEVIS record, and the student stays in status by following the school’s rules. That is the framework the 2026 rule would undo.

Who gets D/S? The main categories are F-1 academic students and F-2 dependents, J-1 exchange visitors and J-2 dependents, and I nonimmigrants — representatives of foreign information media. M-1 vocational students are admitted for a fixed period, not D/S, and this guide does not cover them except where noted. F-1 is the largest group by far: the Institute of International Education counted 1,177,766 international students in the United States in the 2024/25 academic year, a record, including 294,253 on OPT. India sent the most students (363,019), followed by China (265,919).

How to check your I-94 and read the D/S notation

Your Form I-94 is the official record of your admission, and it is the document that says whether you are in D/S. Check it after every entry into the United States, on the CBP I-94 website (i94.cbp.dhs.gov). Look at three things: the class of admission (F-1 or J-1), the admit-until date, and the travel history. If the admit-until field says D/S, you were admitted for duration of status. If it shows a calendar date instead, something is wrong — tell your DSO or Responsible Officer immediately, because a date on an F-1 or J-1 record is a mistake that needs correcting while you are still in the country.

Two distinctions matter more than the notation itself. First, your visa and your status are different things. The visa is the stamp that lets you ask to enter; the status is your permission to stay, shown on the I-94. Your visa can expire while you remain in valid status, and your status can be lost while your visa is still valid. Second, the program end date on your I-20 or DS-2019 is not your departure deadline while D/S applies — but it is not a date you can ignore. It is the date your program is expected to end. If you need additional time to complete your studies, arrange an eligible program extension with your DSO (F-1) or Responsible Officer (J-1) before your current program end date. Passing that date without completing the program or obtaining the required extension can cause a status violation. Successful completion, authorized post-completion training, and applicable grace periods follow separate rules.

Four agencies share responsibility for your stay, and knowing which one does what saves time when something goes wrong. Immigration and Customs Enforcement runs SEVP and the SEVIS database where your school records your enrollment. The State Department issues the visa abroad. Customs and Border Protection admits you and creates the I-94. USCIS decides changes of status, reinstatement requests, and employment authorization applications such as OPT. At your school, the DSO issues and updates your Form I-20 and is the person you work with on almost every status question. Talk to your DSO before you act, not after — that is the single most repeated piece of advice in every international office, and it is the right one.

How to stay in status — the F-1 maintenance rules

Duration of status is conditional. You keep it by following the rules tied to your category for the whole length of your program. For F-1 students, the core requirement is a full course of study every term. For undergraduates that means at least 12 credit hours per term. Graduate students must carry whatever their institution certifies as a full load. Language training students must attend at least 18 hours a week of classroom instruction, or 22 clock hours if the program is not primarily classroom-based. Only one online course, or 3 credits, counts toward a full course load for F-1 students — the rest must be in person. Students in English-language training programs face a stricter rule: no online course counts toward their full course load at all (8 CFR 214.2(f)(6)(i)(G)).

You may drop below a full course load only with DSO authorization, and only for the reasons the regulation allows: a documented medical condition (for up to 12 months), academic difficulty during your first term, or your final semester when you can finish the degree with fewer courses. Dropping a class without that authorization is one of the fastest ways to fall out of status. The same goes for unauthorized work. On-campus work is limited to 20 hours a week while school is in session; off-campus work needs authorization — CPT, OPT, or severe economic hardship employment — and working without it is a status violation that also blocks reinstatement.

Reporting matters as much as enrollment. You must report any change of U.S. address, legal name, or academic major to your DSO within 10 days, and your DSO updates your SEVIS record. Letting that information go stale can lead to a terminated SEVIS record, and a terminated record means you have lost your legal right to stay. You may enter the United States no more than 30 days before the program start date on your I-20. And if you stay outside the United States for more than five months, other than for authorized study abroad, you generally need a new initial I-20 and a new SEVIS fee to return.

J-1 exchange visitors follow a parallel set of rules, run by their program sponsor’s Responsible Officer instead of a DSO. The DS-2019 states the category — student, research scholar, professor, intern, trainee, teacher, au pair, summer work travel, camp counselor, physician, and others — the worksite where relevant, and the program length. You must stay in the activity the program approved, keep the required insurance, and report changes to your sponsor. Some J-1 categories carry a two-year home-country physical presence requirement under INA 212(e), which can block a change to H-1B or a green card until it is satisfied or waived; the J-1 section below covers it briefly.

Grace periods — how long you have after your program ends

The grace period is the window after your program ends when you may prepare to depart, transfer to another school, or apply for a change of status. The length depends on how your program ended, and the difference between the rows in this table is the difference between a planned departure and an emergency.

One confusion to clear up now, because the same number appears in two different rules. The F-1 60-day grace period in this table is not the H-1B 60-day grace period. The H-1B grace period applies to H-1B workers who lose their jobs and is covered in our H-1B grace period guide. The F-1 grace period applies to students who finish their program. Same length, different people, different regulation, different consequences. If someone tells you the grace period is being eliminated, ask which one — the H-1B proposal to eliminate the 60-day grace period is a separate DHS proposal with its own comment period, and it has nothing to do with the F-1 grace period.

What ends your status

Your stay under D/S ends in one of four ways. The first is the ordinary one: you finish your program and any authorized practical training, and the grace period runs out. The second is a violation: you stop enrolling full time without authorization, you work without authorization, or you fail to report required changes, and your DSO terminates your SEVIS record. The third is a transfer or change of status that replaces your F-1 or J-1 status with another one. The fourth is departure without a valid basis to return.

A SEVIS termination is the one to understand clearly, because it is administrative and fast. Your DSO can terminate your record for failure to maintain status, and the termination takes effect in the system immediately. You do not get a hearing first, and you do not get a grace period afterward. Your options at that point are reinstatement — Form I-539 for F-1 students, a Department of State process for J-1 visitors — departure and re-entry on a new I-20, or a change to another status if you qualify — and the clock for reinstatement is short, as the next section explains. If your record was terminated in error, tell your DSO at once; DSOs can request a correction, and the sooner the error is flagged, the better the chances of fixing it without a filing.

Falling out of status is not the same as accruing unlawful presence, and the distinction decides whether you face a re-entry bar. Out of status means you violated the terms of your admission. Unlawful presence is a separate legal concept with its own definition, and it is the one that triggers the 3-year and 10-year bars. That distinction is the subject of the next section, and it is the most consequential part of this guide.

Unlawful presence and the 3-year and 10-year bars

Unlawful presence is time spent in the United States after your authorized stay expires, or without being admitted or paroled at all. It is defined by INA 212(a)(9)(B), and the consequences are mechanical: accrue more than 180 days but less than one year of unlawful presence in a single stay, and departing the United States triggers a 3-year bar on return. Accrue one year or more, and departure triggers a 10-year bar. The bars are triggered by departure, not by accrual alone — but once you leave with the time accrued, the bar applies, and a waiver is hard to get.

For most nonimmigrants the clock is simple: it starts the day after the date on the I-94. For D/S students there is no date on the I-94, so the clock starts only when USCIS denies the benefit request in which it found a violation, or an immigration judge issues an order finding a violation — and one sentence on a general USCIS webpage reads differently. That sentence is a wording discrepancy, not a policy change, and this section explains why.

That is the framework the courts and the manuals use. Under the longstanding USCIS guidance consolidated in 2009, a D/S nonimmigrant begins accruing unlawful presence only the day after USCIS denies the benefit request in which it found a status violation, or the day after an immigration judge’s order. In August 2018, USCIS tried to change that by policy memo, so that F, J and M students would start accruing unlawful presence the day after a status violation, with no formal finding. Universities sued, and in Guilford College v. Wolf the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina permanently enjoined the 2018 memo nationwide in February 2020. The government appealed, then withdrew its appeal, and the Fourth Circuit dismissed the case in August 2020 — making the injunction final. Under that injunction, the formal-finding rule stands: being out of status does not start the unlawful presence clock until USCIS denies the benefit request in which it found the violation, or an immigration judge issues an order finding a violation.

The one sentence that reads differently sits on USCIS’s general “Unlawful Presence and Inadmissibility” webpage, which says that nonimmigrants admitted for duration of status “generally begin accruing unlawful presence the day after their status ends, if they remain in the United States.” The general webpage wording should be read alongside the detailed USCIS guidance discussed above; it should not, by itself, be treated as evidence of a policy change. It is not a new policy, it did not change the regulation, and the 2026 fixed-admission rule itself states that it does not change when F and J nonimmigrants begin accruing unlawful presence. A status violation and unlawful presence are separate concepts: being out of status does not by itself start the unlawful presence clock, and only a formal finding does.

Our advice is the cautious one. The formal-finding rule is the law as it stands, but it is not a reason to stay out of status: being out of status still leaves you removable, and the webpage wording shows that even USCIS’s own summaries can point the other way. If you are out of status, act at once — talk to your DSO and an immigration attorney immediately, and do not leave the United States without advice, because departure is what triggers the bar.

Reinstatement — getting F-1 status back after a violation

For F-1 students, if you fall out of status, reinstatement is the main way back without leaving the country. You file Form I-539 with USCIS, with a new Form I-20 carrying your DSO’s reinstatement recommendation. USCIS decides, not your school — a DSO recommendation does not guarantee approval — and the conditions are strict. Under 8 CFR 214.2(f)(16), you must show all of the following:

• You have not been out of status for more than 5 months at the time of filing — unless the delay was caused by exceptional circumstances and you filed as promptly as possible once you could.
• You do not have a record of repeated or willful violations of the immigration regulations.
• The violation resulted from circumstances beyond your control — serious injury or illness, closure of the institution, a natural disaster, or an oversight by your DSO — or it relates to a reduction in your course load that your DSO could have authorized, and denying reinstatement would cause you extreme hardship.
• You are currently pursuing, or intend to pursue, a full course of study in the next available term.
• You have not engaged in unauthorized employment, and you are not deportable on any ground other than overstaying or failing to maintain status.

While the request is pending — often six to twelve months — you must stay enrolled full time, but you may not work on campus, may not participate in CPT or OPT, and may not travel abroad. If USCIS denies the request, there is no appeal; your options are departure or another status if you qualify. The I-539 fee is $470 on paper or $420 online, from the USCIS Fee Schedule. Filing within five months alone does not establish eligibility — the circumstances matter as much as the timing — so file early, document everything, and get legal advice before you file, not after a denial.

J-1 reinstatement works differently, and there is no Form I-539 for it. Under 22 CFR 62.45, the sponsor’s Responsible Officer may correct minor or technical infractions — a late DS-2019 extension, for example — and the correction returns the visitor to the status quo, as if the infraction never occurred. For a substantive violation, the sponsor must apply to the Department of State for reinstatement. Some violations cannot be reinstated at all, including unauthorized employment, willful failure to maintain the required insurance, and involuntary suspension or termination from the program. A State Department proposed rule published July 30, 2026 would rewrite these procedures, but it is only a proposal — comments closed September 28, 2026, and there is no final rule.

The alternative to reinstatement is departure and re-entry on a new initial I-20 (F-1) or a new DS-2019 (J-1), with a new SEVIS fee. That route requires a valid visa or a new visa application abroad, and it carries its own risk: if you have accrued unlawful presence, departure is exactly what triggers the bars described above. That is why the choice between reinstatement and departure is a decision to make with a lawyer, not alone.

The 2026 rule that would end duration of status

On July 17, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a final rule titled “Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media” (91 FR 44976). It is the most significant change to student immigration in nearly fifty years — and it is not in effect. This section describes what the rule would do, so you can tell the difference between the law today and the law that might come.

The rule replaces duration of status with a fixed admission period: the length of the program on the I-20 or DS-2019, up to four years, plus 30 days to arrive before the program starts and 30 days to depart after it ends. The 30 days before the start date do not count toward the four-year limit. Anyone whose program runs longer than four years — which describes many undergraduates and many doctoral candidates — would have to file Form I-539 with USCIS for an extension of stay before the admission period expires, pay the fee, give biometrics, and possibly attend an interview. Today the school simply extends the I-20.

The F-1 grace period would fall from 60 days to 30 days, matching J-1, and post-completion OPT would have to start within 30 days of the program end date instead of 60. The rule also restricts changing programs: below graduate level, no transfer or change of educational objectives within the first academic year unless SEVP issues an exception; at graduate level and above, no change of educational objectives at any point, and no transfer at any point unless SEVP issues an exception. DHS may delay or suspend those three restrictions until September 14, 2028, to complete technical upgrades to SEVIS. Language training would be capped at 24 months in total, including time at prior language programs, extendable only by a timely extension showing a valid reason.

For foreign media representatives in I status, the rule imposes a fixed admission of up to 240 days to complete the activity — 90 days for holders of passports issued by the People’s Republic of China, except Hong Kong and Macau SAR passport holders. And for students who file an extension on time, employment authorization would be automatically extended for up to 240 days after the old authorization expires while USCIS decides — a cap, not an indefinite extension: for severe economic hardship employment, if the renewal is still not approved after 240 days, the student may not keep working.

The transition deserves a closer look, because it is the part most often misstated. Under the rule’s transition provision, an F or J nonimmigrant admitted for D/S before the effective date, and maintaining valid status on that date, may remain until the later of the employment authorization document expiration date or the program end date on the I-20 or DS-2019 — but not beyond four years from September 15, 2026, plus 60 days for F-1 students (November 14, 2030) and 30 days for J-1 exchange visitors (October 15, 2030). The “later of” wording matters: whichever date is later, the EAD expiry or the program end date, controls. And the transition is lost by travel: an F or J nonimmigrant who departs before the effective date and returns after it would not be admitted for D/S at all.

For OPT, the transition is separate. Students whose OPT or STEM OPT was approved before the effective date may remain for its duration. An I-765 filed on or before March 18, 2027 would not require a separate Form I-539; after that date, an I-539 must be filed with the I-765 if the I-765 has not yet been approved. Both of those dates were tied to the original September 15, 2026 start date, so treat them as uncertain until a court or a new Federal Register notice sets a new timeline.

Litigation tracker — how the rule was blocked, and what happens next

The rule has never taken effect, and whether it ever does is now a question for two courts. The timeline below is current as of November 10, 2026, and the status line at the top of this guide will be updated if it changes.

What happens next has three branches, and only one of them changes anything for students. If Judge Saylor strikes the rule down, the litigation moves to the First Circuit on a final judgment, and D/S continues while the appeal runs. If he upholds the rule, the plaintiffs could appeal, and the September 14 injunction stays in force unless a court lifts it — the rule does not spring into effect on its own. If the First Circuit reverses the injunction, the rule could take effect with little advance notice, and anyone entering the United States after that date would be admitted under fixed periods. That last branch is why the practical advice in the next section is to keep your documents in order now, while nothing has changed, rather than to wait for a court date.

What to do now — a checklist for F-1 and J-1 students

Nothing in this guide requires you to file anything today. The rule is blocked, and the law in effect is the law that applied before July 2026. What it does require is keeping your record clean, because the cases that go wrong in this area often start with a record that was allowed to go stale.

• Check your I-94 after every entry and confirm it says D/S. If it shows a date, tell your DSO or Responsible Officer at once.
• Keep your I-20 or DS-2019 current. Ask your DSO for a program extension before the current end date passes — do not wait until it has.
• Report address, name and major changes to your DSO within 10 days.
• Do not drop below a full course load without DSO authorization, and do not work off campus without authorization.
• Know your grace period. 60 days for F-1 after program completion and OPT, 30 days for J-1, 15 days after an authorized early withdrawal, none after a violation.
• Do not file Form I-539 to extend F-1 or J-1 status while the rule is blocked. If you see a school or a social media post telling you to file one for an F-1 extension, check the date on the source — it may be describing the blocked rule as if it were law.
• Be careful about travel while the litigation is pending. Re-entry under D/S is normal today, but if the injunction is lifted, anyone entering after that date would be admitted under fixed periods. Keep your I-20 travel signature current, carry your financial documents, and check the status of the case before a long trip.
• Save the USCIS form editions. If you do file an I-539 or I-765 for another reason, use the 08/28/24 edition of the I-539 and the 08/21/25 edition of the I-765. The 09/15/26 editions are not accepted.
• If you fall out of status, act within days, not months. For F-1 reinstatement, generally file within five months of the violation; limited exceptions require additional justification, and the circumstances matter as much as the timing.
• Get advice before departing if there is any chance you have accrued unlawful presence. Departure is what triggers the 3-year and 10-year bars.

From F-1 to H-1B — how duration of status connects to the lottery

For many international students, D/S is not the end of the story. It is the first step in a pipeline: F-1 study, OPT, STEM OPT, then an H-1B petition. The rules in this guide are the rules that keep that pipeline open, and the two places where the pipeline most often breaks are the two transitions covered in our other guides.

The first transition is OPT. After completing a degree, an F-1 student may work for up to 12 months on post-completion OPT, plus 24 months of STEM OPT for a qualifying degree — 36 months in total. The filing window is tight: the I-765 must reach USCIS no later than the current OPT end date for STEM OPT, and no later than 60 days after the program end date for initial OPT. The full rules, the I-983 training plan, the 150-day unemployment clock and the travel rules are in our STEM OPT guide.

The second transition is cap-gap. If an employer files a timely, cap-subject H-1B petition requesting a change of status while you are on OPT, your F-1 status and work authorization are automatically extended until April 1 of the fiscal year, or the validity start date of the approved petition, whichever is earlier. The authority is 8 CFR 214.2(f)(5)(vi). Do not travel abroad while a change-of-status petition is pending — travel abandons the change of status, and the petition can then only be approved for consular notification. The full change-of-status rules, the cap-gap mechanics and the fees are in our H-1B change of status guide.

The blocked D/S rule would touch both transitions. It would cut the window to start post-completion OPT from 60 days to 30 days after the program end date, and it would make the four-year admission cap — with an I-539 extension — part of every student’s timeline. Cap-gap itself is unchanged under the rule, so an H-1B petition filed during OPT would still bridge the gap. But the margin for error shrinks, which is one more reason the litigation matters to students who plan to stay.

J-1 exchange visitors — what is different

J-1 visitors are admitted for duration of status under the same general framework, but the details run through the program sponsor rather than a school. The DS-2019 states the exchange category, the activity, the site, and the program length. The Responsible Officer, not a DSO, is the point of contact for extensions, transfers, and travel validation. The grace period after the program ends is 30 days, and it has always been 30 days — the blocked rule would not change it. What the rule would change is the admission itself: instead of D/S, a J-1 visitor would be admitted for the program length, up to four years.

The J-1 rule with the longest shadow is the two-year home-country physical presence requirement, INA 212(e). It applies to exchange visitors whose program was financed by the U.S. or their home government, or whose field appears on the State Department’s skills list, and to foreign medical graduates. Until the two years are satisfied or waived, a J-1 visitor generally cannot change status to H-1B or L-1, or adjust to permanent residence, inside the United States. The waiver routes — no-objection statement, interested government agency, persecution, exceptional hardship, and physician Conrad 30 — are a separate topic, but the existence of the requirement is something every J-1 visitor should check before building a plan that assumes an H-1B.

J-1 visitors in academic training — the J-1 equivalent of OPT — get the same transition treatment as F-1 students under the blocked rule: training approved before the effective date may run its course. Academic training is authorized by the sponsor’s Responsible Officer, not by an employment authorization document, so the rule’s I-765 transition provisions do not apply to it. Again, those dates were tied to the original September 15, 2026 start date, so treat them as uncertain until a court or a new Federal Register notice sets a new timeline.

I-visa media representatives — a small group with the biggest change

I nonimmigrants — foreign journalists and other representatives of foreign information media — are a small group, but the blocked rule would change their admission the most. Today they are admitted for duration of status, like students and exchange visitors. Under the rule, an I nonimmigrant would be admitted for the period necessary to complete the activity, up to 240 days — and only 90 days for holders of passports issued by the People’s Republic of China, except Hong Kong and Macau SAR passport holders.

The transition is correspondingly short. An I nonimmigrant admitted for D/S and maintaining status on the effective date would be authorized to remain for the period necessary to complete the activity, up to May 13, 2027 (240 days) — or December 14, 2026 (90 days) for PRC passport holders. Because the rule is blocked, none of those dates applies today, and I nonimmigrants remain admitted for duration of status.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is duration of status?

Duration of status, or D/S, is an admission for F-1 students, J-1 exchange visitors and their dependents, and I media representatives, in which Form I-94 shows “D/S” instead of a fixed departure date. Your authorized stay lasts as long as you maintain the conditions of your status — full-time study for F-1, the approved exchange program for J-1 — rather than until a calendar date.

Is duration of status still in effect?

Yes. DHS published a final rule on July 17, 2026 (91 FR 44976) that would replace D/S with fixed admission periods of up to four years, but Judge Saylor of the District of Massachusetts blocked it nationwide on September 14, 2026, one day before it was due to take effect. D/S is still the law as of November 10, 2026.

What does D/S mean on my I-94?

It means you were admitted for the duration of your status, with no fixed end date. Check it after every entry on the CBP I-94 website. If your F-1 or J-1 record shows a calendar date instead of D/S, tell your DSO or Responsible Officer immediately — a date on an F-1 or J-1 record is a mistake that needs correcting.

How long can I stay in the United States on duration of status?

As long as you maintain your status. There is no fixed limit while D/S applies: you stay through your program, any authorized practical training, and the grace period that follows. Your stay ends when your status ends — when you finish your program and the grace period runs out, when your SEVIS record is terminated, or when you stop maintaining status.

What is the 60-day grace period for F-1 students?

After you complete your program and any authorized OPT, you have 60 days to depart, transfer to another school, or apply for a change of status. You may not work during the grace period. After an authorized early withdrawal the period is 15 days. After a status violation there is no grace period at all. J-1 exchange visitors get 30 days. Do not confuse the F-1 grace period with the H-1B 60-day grace period — they are different rules for different people.

What happens if I fall out of status?

For F-1 students: your DSO can terminate your SEVIS record, and the termination takes effect immediately, with no grace period. Your options are reinstatement through Form I-539, departure and re-entry on a new I-20, or a change to another status if you qualify. Reinstatement generally must be filed within five months of the violation, and you must show the violation was beyond your control, that you have no record of repeated or willful violations, and that you have not worked without authorization. For J-1 exchange visitors, reinstatement is a separate process: your sponsor’s Responsible Officer corrects minor or technical infractions, and for substantive violations the sponsor must apply to the Department of State under 22 CFR 62.45. Some violations cannot be reinstated, including unauthorized employment.

When do I start accruing unlawful presence?

Under the formal-finding rule, a D/S nonimmigrant begins accruing unlawful presence only the day after USCIS denies the benefit request in which it found a status violation, or the day after an immigration judge’s order. That rule comes from the 2009 USCIS guidance, is written into the Adjudicator’s Field Manual and the USCIS Policy Manual, and is backed by the permanent nationwide injunction in Guilford College v. Wolf. One sentence on a general USCIS webpage reads differently — it says D/S nonimmigrants “generally begin accruing unlawful presence the day after their status ends.” The general webpage wording should be read alongside the detailed USCIS guidance discussed above; it should not, by itself, be treated as evidence of a policy change. Get advice before departing, because departure is what triggers the 3-year and 10-year bars.

What is the 3-year and 10-year bar?

Under INA 212(a)(9)(B), accruing more than 180 days but less than one year of unlawful presence in a single stay and then departing triggers a 3-year bar on returning to the United States. Accruing one year or more and departing triggers a 10-year bar. The bars are triggered by departure, not by accrual alone, which is why leaving the country without advice can turn a fixable problem into a years-long absence.

What would the blocked rule change for students?

It would replace D/S with a fixed admission of up to four years, require Form I-539 extensions with USCIS to stay longer, cut the F-1 grace period from 60 days to 30 days, require post-completion OPT to start within 30 days of the program end date, restrict graduate program changes and transfers, cap language training at 24 months, and admit I-visa media representatives for up to 240 days. Students already in D/S would keep it until the later of their EAD expiry or program end date, capped at November 14, 2030 for F-1 and October 15, 2030 for J-1.

When will the court decide the duration of status case?

Summary judgment briefing in the district court finished on November 2, 2026, so Judge Saylor can rule at any time, and no hearing or ruling date has been set. On November 3, the government asked the First Circuit to pause its appeal for 30 days so the district court can rule first; the plaintiffs consented, and the request is awaiting the court’s approval. If the pause is not granted, the plaintiffs’ First Circuit response is due December 9, 2026.

Do I need to file Form I-539 to extend my F-1 or J-1 status now?

No. While the rule is blocked, F-1 and J-1 students extend their stay through their school or program — a new or extended I-20 or DS-2019 — not through USCIS. Form I-539 is used for reinstatement after a violation, and for changes to another status. If you do file an I-539 or I-765 for another reason, use the 08/28/24 edition of the I-539 and the 08/21/25 edition of the I-765; the 09/15/26 editions built for the blocked rule are not accepted.

How does duration of status connect to H-1B?

D/S is the first step in the F-1 to H-1B pipeline: study, then up to 12 months of OPT, then 24 months of STEM OPT for a qualifying degree, then an H-1B petition. If an employer files a timely cap-subject H-1B petition requesting a change of status while you are on OPT, cap-gap automatically extends your F-1 status and work authorization until April 1 of the fiscal year, or the validity start date of the approved petition, whichever is earlier. Do not travel abroad while a change-of-status petition is pending — that abandons the change of status.

Sources

• Federal Register — Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission, 91 FR 44976 (July 17, 2026) — the Duration of Status final rule, blocked by injunction on September 14, 2026.
• Presidents’ Alliance — Duration of Status Litigation — the case docket and timeline for Presidents’ Alliance v. DHS, No. 1:26-cv-13799, including the November 3 pause request.
• USCIS — Unlawful Presence and Inadmissibility — the general webpage wording on when D/S nonimmigrants begin accruing unlawful presence, and the 3-year and 10-year bars.
• USCIS — Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status — the form used for reinstatement and for extensions under the blocked rule; the 08/28/24 edition remains the one to file.
• eCFR — 8 CFR 214.2(f) — the regulation governing F-1 status, reinstatement under (f)(16), and cap-gap under (f)(5)(vi). Note that the eCFR currently shows the blocked rule text as current law, with no note about the injunction.
• NAFSA — Accrual of Unlawful Presence and F, J and M Nonimmigrants — the formal-finding rule, the 2018 memo, and the Guilford College injunction.
• Institute of International Education — Open Doors 2025 — 1,177,766 international students in 2024/25, including 294,253 on OPT; India 363,019, China 265,919.
• AbroadBrief — Duration of Status Rule Status — a live status page tracking the injunction, the appeal, and the transition dates.
• MIT International Students Office — Duration of Status Final Rule — the September 14, 2026 nationwide injunction in Presidents’ Alliance v. DHS, No. 1:26-cv-13799.
• USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 2, Part F, Chapter 5 — cap-gap guidance; note that parts of this chapter still describe the old October 1 end date.

Published: November 10, 2026. Status last checked: November 10, 2026. The litigation in this guide is moving — the district court can rule at any time, and the First Circuit is deciding whether to pause the appeal. Fees, rules, and court orders change — confirm them on the linked USCIS and DHS pages before filing. Not legal advice — consult an immigration attorney for your case.