F-1 and J-1 Students Lose Duration of Status.
This Is Not a Drill.

If you are an international student or exchange visitor on an F-1 or J-1 visa, September 15, 2026 is not just another date. It is the day the federal government changed the foundational rule governing how long you are legally authorized to be in the United States.

For decades, F-1 and J-1 holders operated under what is known as "Duration of Status" — abbreviated D/S. Under that system, your authorized stay was tied to your enrollment: as long as you maintained full-time student status and stayed within the terms of your visa, your authorized period of stay continued. There was no fixed date stamped in your passport telling you when to leave.

The End of Duration of Status Final Rule, published in the Federal Register and now in effect, changes that. F-1 and J-1 holders will now be admitted for a specific date-certain period of stay — similar to how B-1/B-2 tourists or H-1B workers are admitted. If you are still in the U.S. after your authorized date without having extended or changed status, you begin accumulating unlawful presence — a serious immigration consequence that can bar you from reentry for three or ten years.

This rule affects every current F-1 and J-1 student, as well as future admissions. If you have recently arrived and had "D/S" stamped in your passport, you need to confirm your new authorized stay date and understand what action, if any, is required before that date passes.

ICE Deported a Navy Mom
After Her Green Card Interview.

The case that may best illustrate the current enforcement environment in one story: a woman — the mother of a U.S. Navy service member — attended her own USCIS green card interview in good faith and was arrested by ICE agents waiting at or near the USCIS office. She was deported.

This case, reported by Newsweek on September 7, 2026, is not an isolated incident. Immigration attorneys and advocacy organizations have documented a pattern in which ICE agents are stationed near USCIS interview locations — including both adjustment of status interviews and naturalization ceremonies — to apprehend individuals when they voluntarily appear for government appointments.

The strategic logic from ICE's perspective is simple: these are people who have pre-announced their location, their identity, and the exact time they will appear at a specific government building. From the perspective of the people showing up, it represents something more troubling — voluntary compliance with the immigration system being used as the mechanism for their own apprehension.

This does not mean you should skip USCIS interviews. Failure to appear has its own severe consequences, including denial of your application. But it does mean that attending a USCIS interview without understanding your current legal exposure — and without having spoken with an immigration attorney — carries real risk that did not exist in prior years.

$103,265.
The Proposed H-1B Filing Fee.

On August 24, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule that, if finalized, would impose a new fee of $103,265 on every H-1B cap-subject petition — including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption for U.S. master's degree holders. This fee would be paid at the time of filing and would apply in addition to all existing H-1B fees that employers already pay.

To put that number in context: the current total of standard H-1B filing fees for most employers runs between $4,000 and $7,000. The proposed new fee would increase that by a factor of roughly fifteen to twenty-five times.

DHS frames this as a measure to offset the cost of H-1B program administration and to deter speculative petitions. Critics — including major technology industry associations and immigration law organizations — have called the proposed fee a de facto ban on H-1B sponsorship for many small and mid-sized employers, and note that it follows the same legal theory as a previously proposed H-1B fee that a federal appeals court declined to revive.

This is a proposed rule, not yet finalized. A public comment period is open. Employers and practitioners should monitor the Federal Register for the comment deadline and final rule timeline.

The 60-Day Grace Period
May Be Gone for Laid-Off Workers.

Since 2017, employment-based visa holders — including H-1B, L-1, O-1, E-3, and TN workers — have been protected by a 60-day grace period after their employment ends. This rule gave workers who are laid off, or who leave a job, two months to find a new sponsoring employer, change to another visa category, or prepare to depart the country without immediately falling out of status.

In September 2026, DHS proposed eliminating this grace period entirely. If finalized, a worker whose employment ends would have no buffer period — they would need to depart the United States or have an approved change of status before their employment ends, with no grace window.

The practical impact is significant. In a volatile technology and finance job market where layoffs can come with little or no notice, eliminating the grace period would leave workers in an immediate status emergency from the moment they receive a termination notice. Finding a new employer willing to file an H-1B transfer petition, having that petition filed, and having it approved — all within zero days — is, for most workers, not achievable.

Visa Interviews Are Frozen
Worldwide. Here Is Why.

A federal judge in Manhattan struck down the State Department policy that had suspended immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries, ruling it exceeded the Secretary of State's statutory authority and violated the immigration law's prohibition on nationality-based discrimination in immigrant visa issuance. That was the good news.

Within days of that ruling, the State Department paused immigrant visa appointments at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide — citing the need to train consular officers on updated public charge guidance before resuming interviews. Processing has partially resumed at select posts, including Hungary and Poland, but a global pause otherwise remains in effect at most locations.

This means that even applicants from countries not on the original 75-country list are experiencing delays as global consular capacity is disrupted. The September 2026 Visa Bulletin delivered major advances in family-based categories — particularly F1, F2B, F3, and F4 — but those advances are of limited practical value while interview appointments cannot be scheduled.

El Salvador TPS Expired.
Thirteen Countries, and Counting.

Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador expired on September 9, 2026. TPS has now been terminated in thirteen countries total, a significant expansion of terminations that has removed the last layer of immigration protection for tens of thousands of individuals who had lived, worked, and raised families in the United States — in some cases for decades.

For Salvadoran TPS holders, the expiration means that the employment authorization that came with TPS status has also ended — or is in the process of ending as automatic extension periods wind down. USCIS updated its guidance on July 7, 2026 to reflect reduced or eliminated automatic extension periods for qualifying TPS applicants and beneficiaries with TPS-based EADs.

For individuals who held TPS from El Salvador and have no other immigration status, this is an urgent situation. Some may be eligible for other forms of relief — asylum, cancellation of removal, U visas for crime victims, family-based petitions — that should be evaluated by an immigration attorney immediately, before any enforcement encounter makes the path to relief more complicated.