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The answer to this question is changing. For decades F-1 students were admitted for "duration of status," which meant no fixed departure date on the Form I-94 and no extension application to file with the government — the school simply managed the program end date on the Form I-20. A final rule published by the Department of Homeland Security on 17 July 2026 replaces that system with a fixed admission date and a formal extension of stay application. The rule takes effect on 15 September 2026.
Under the new rule an F-1 student is admitted for the time needed to complete the course of study shown on the I-20, up to a maximum of four years. That date appears on your I-94, and it is a real deadline rather than an administrative note. After your program and any authorized practical training end, you have a further thirty days to leave the country or to put something else in place. Note that this wrap-up period is shorter than the sixty days students have been used to.
Extensions are no longer handled by your school alone. The process now has two steps. Your designated school official must first issue a new I-20 endorsing the request and setting a new program end date. You then file an extension of stay application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, with the required fee and biometrics.
To qualify you must have continuously maintained status, be pursuing a full course of study, and either have an I-20 showing that time remains in your program or be able to document one of the recognized reasons for needing longer:
Delay caused by academic probation or suspension, or by a repeated inability or unwillingness to complete the program, is expressly excluded.
USCIS must receive your application on or before the date your authorized stay expires, including the thirty-day wrap-up period. A postmark is not enough. A timely filed application lets you carry on studying while it is pending, even after your admission date has passed. Employment is treated less generously. On-campus work, curricular practical training and hardship employment may continue with the same employer for up to 240 days, and a student moving from post-completion training to the STEM extension keeps the existing 180-day continuation. But there is no automatic extension of post-completion optional practical training while an extension is being adjudicated, and no new job may be started until it is approved. For anyone on optional practical training, that gap matters a great deal, and it argues strongly for filing early.
Traveling abroad and being readmitted is the other way to obtain a fresh admission period, but it depends on holding a valid visa and on the admission decision at the border, so it is not a substitute for planning.
If you travel while an extension is already pending, the rule says when that departure costs you the application. It is protected if you return before your existing admission period expires and seek admission only for the balance of that period. It may be treated as abandoned if you return with an I-20 showing a program end date beyond your current admission period, or if your admission period expires while you are abroad. An application for employment authorization filed alongside the extension is not treated as abandoned in either case. Travel with the receipt notice and the I-20 showing the stay you are seeking.
Students who are properly maintaining F-1 status on that date, and who were admitted for duration of status, are not required to file immediately. You may remain until the later of your I-20 program end date or the expiration of your employment authorization document, subject to a ceiling of four years from 15 September 2026, plus the sixty-day departure period that applied under the old system. In practice that outer limit falls on 14 November 2030. If your program will finish before then, nothing changes for you in the meantime.
The same rule tightens what you may do once you are here. Students below graduate level generally may not transfer schools or change their major or educational level during the first academic year. Students at graduate level or above may not change educational objectives at all, and may not transfer without an exception granted by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. And anyone who completes a program after 15 September 2026 may not then take F-1 status for another program at the same or a lower level. If you were contemplating a second bachelor's degree or a lateral move, that route is closing.
An F-2 dependent's authorized stay cannot extend beyond yours. If you apply for an extension, they need to be included, and their status ends when yours does.
Missing your admission date leaves you out of status, and the route back is reinstatement — a separate application, with a fee, a real possibility of refusal, and consequences for work authorization and travel while it is pending. Under the old system a lapse of this kind was uncommon because there was no fixed date to miss. Under the new one it will be much easier to fall over, which is why the date on your I-94 is now worth diarizing the day you receive it.
Related pages: how long you can stay, work authorization and traveling outside the United States.
This page is general information, not legal advice. The rule described here was classified as a major rule subject to congressional review, and its effective date could change, so confirm the current position before relying on it and discuss your circumstances with an attorney.