International students at CSU Channel Islands and Moorpark College can keep studying without a new federal deadline on their visas.

A federal judge on Monday, Sept. 14, blocked a Department of Homeland Security rule that would have capped student visas at four years, as EdSource reported. The rule was scheduled to take effect Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a nationwide preliminary injunction. The order preserves the system in place since 1978, under which international students in good standing may remain in the country until they finish their studies.

The blocked rule would have required students who need more than four years to file an extension request with DHS. Any denial would have been "entirely discretionary and unappealable, even within DHS itself," according to the court order.

Moorpark College's International Student Program supports around 100 international students, according to the college. CSU Channel Islands, located near Camarillo, enrolled 4,880 students in fall 2024, though a specific count of international students was not available.

Why the court stepped in

Saylor wrote that DHS's national security argument did not hold up. "The government's contention that the rule is necessary to safeguard national security borders on the absurd," he wrote. "It is based almost entirely on a small handful of anecdotes, each of which involved incidents that the new rule would do nothing to prevent or even mitigate."

The judge found that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by failing to adequately address the roughly 22,000 public comments submitted during a 32-day comment period. The overwhelming majority opposed the rule.

Costs and consequences

The government acknowledged that compliance costs alone would likely top $250 million in the first year, the court noted. DHS's own broader analysis projected total costs between $443.1 million and $448.6 million. The court called the potential damage to higher education and the U.S. economy "likely to be catastrophic."

Doctoral students faced the sharpest impact. National Science Foundation data show doctoral programs take a median 5.7 years to complete, meaning most Ph.D. candidates would have needed extensions. International applications through the Common Application have already fallen 10 percent in the latest admissions cycle, and doctoral applications dropped 21 percent, according to figures cited by NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

More than half of all international students major in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Roughly 1.6 million people hold F student visas and 500,000 hold J exchange-visitor visas nationwide, the court noted.

What happens next

The injunction holds while the legal challenge continues. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2, according to Reuters via Latestly. The coalition that brought the case includes the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, NAFSA and the American Federation of Teachers.

Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents' Alliance, said in a statement that the decision recognizes the serious harm the rule would cause to international students, higher education institutions and the broader economy.

No appeal had been announced as of Tuesday, Sept. 15.