The US Department of Homeland Security has issued a new rule capping student visas at four-year periods, a change that has raised alarm among international students at Columbia University.

Under the rule, student visas will no longer remain valid for the full duration of a degree programme without a fixed endpoint. Instead, the new maximum period of stay is set at four years for affected students. The Columbia Daily Spectator, which first reported the story for the Columbia community, notes that the change has generated significant concern among the university's international students.

Students who need more than four years to complete their studies — a common situation in doctoral programmes and other extended degree tracks — will need to take additional steps under the new framework rather than continuing on the terms they previously expected. The Spectator's report highlights anxiety at Columbia about how the cap will interact with longer programmes and with students' academic timelines.

The rule comes from the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency responsible for administering student visa policy in the United States. Columbia international students, like international students at other US universities, will now need to plan around the four-year limit when mapping out their studies and future immigration steps.

At this stage, the report does not specify all procedural details of the new rule, including extension mechanisms, application processes, or transitional arrangements for students already enrolled. Affected students should monitor announcements from DHS and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which publish the official text of regulatory changes, and consult their university's international students and scholars office for guidance on how the rule applies to their individual circumstances.

Passport File will continue to track this story as further official details emerge from the Department of Homeland Security.