Is the Duration of Status Rule Still Happening? What the September 14 Injunction Means

The rule was supposed to take effect on September 15, 2026. It didn't.

Late on Monday, September 14, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction postponing the effective date of the DHS rule that would have ended Duration of Status. Students entering the United States this week are still admitted for duration of status.

If you spent August building a plan around a September 15 deadline, that work is not wasted. It's just early. Here's what actually changed and what didn't.

What Happened on September 14, 2026?

Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a 48-page preliminary injunction postponing the rule's effective date in Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration v. DHS. The order came down hours before the rule was scheduled to take effect.

The court found that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to adequately respond to public comments and to consider alternatives. On the government's national security justification, Saylor wrote:

"The government's contention that the rule is necessary to safeguard national security borders on the absurd."

He added that the security rationale rested "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."

Eight organizations brought the suit, NAFSA among them. NAFSA CEO Fanta Aw called the order "an important step toward preserving a fair and predictable system for international students."

Is the Duration of Status Rule in Effect Right Now?

No. The relief is nationwide.

F-1 and J-1 students continue to be admitted for duration of status. There is no date-certain I-94 being issued under this rule. The four-year cap is not operating. DHS and ICE are barred from implementing the rule while the litigation proceeds, and NAFSA confirms the current F-1 regulations are still in effect.

This is the single most important thing to communicate to students who spent the summer worried about it.

What Did the Court Actually Decide?

It paused the rule. It did not end it.

A preliminary injunction is not a final ruling. It holds "pending further order of this court or resolution of this proceeding on the merits." The plaintiffs are asking the court to vacate the rule entirely, which the injunction does not do. The government can appeal. Either path could change the picture.

A status conference is scheduled for October 2, 2026. That is the next date worth putting on your calendar.

What Would the Rule Have Done?

The rule would have replaced Duration of Status with a fixed "Admit Until Date." Students entering after the effective date would have been admitted until the earlier of their program end date or four years from arrival.

DHS published the final rule in the Federal Register on July 17, 2026 (91 FR 44976). The final text included the four-year cap, a 30-day grace period, and a March 18, 2027 OPT filing deadline.

Why the Extension Process Was the Real Problem

The four-year cap was never the hard part. The filing burden behind it was.

Per NAFSA, an I-539 extension of stay typically takes five to six months and can take twelve to eighteen. There is no right to appeal a denial. Unlawful presence begins the day after a denial.

The USCIS backlog exceeds 11.65 million cases, per the American Immigration Council.

Set that against the fact that NAFSA reports a median PhD takes 5.7 years, and the shape of the problem becomes clear: a large population of students would have needed a slow, non-appealable filing to finish degrees they were already enrolled in.

The injunction pauses the rule. It does not shorten the backlog.

What Should ISSS Offices Do Now?

The honest answer is: the same thing you were going to do, with less time pressure and more room to do it properly.

Find out who would have been affected. Every office spent the last two months asking a version of this question. Almost none can answer it from a single system. If a court reinstates the rule on short notice, the offices that can produce that list in an afternoon will be in a very different position than the ones starting from exports and spreadsheets.

Identify your long-program populations. Doctoral students, dual-degree students, anyone whose program routinely runs past four years. These are the students a fixed cap hits first, under this rule or any future version of it.

Keep your student communication current. Students who were told in August that a hard deadline was coming need to hear that it's been paused. Silence reads as a mistake.

Watch October 2. Not the news cycle, the docket.

Does the Injunction Change What You Needed to Know?

No. It changes when you need it, not whether.

The deadline moved. The exposure didn't. Every institution that could not answer "which of our students would hit a fixed end date before finishing" on September 14 still cannot answer it today. That was always the underlying problem, and no court order fixes it.

We’ve already updated Via International (our ISSS compliance software) with the workflows and tools to manage this rule (when it does begin).

• Program End Date automations can fire further ahead of a deadline, so extension outreach starts while there is still time to file.
• I-94 Admit Until Date triggers catch students before their date and after it, so nobody moves into or past a grace period unnoticed.
• An updated Duration of Status indicator puts D/S records and dated records side by side in your reports.

Plus, Via SEVIS Bridge (our proprietary SEVIS integration tool) is already updated for the next release, so the connection holds whenever that date lands. Student alert features are coming next so students can be prepared to file any extensions they need.

Read the white paper: Facing the Four-Year Wall →

Book a walkthrough with a former PDSO →

Catch up on the series:

Part 1, The Four-Year Wall Is No Longer Theoretical

Part 2, 7 Steps ISSS Offices Should Do Before the DHS Rule

Part 3, Duration of Status Final Rule: What Actually Changed

Sources: Inside Higher Ed, September 14, 2026; The PIE News, September 15, 2026; NAFSA regulatory analysis; Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration; U.S. Federal Register, July 17, 2026 (91 FR 44976); American Immigration Council USCIS case tracker. Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration v. DHS, D. Mass.

Provided for informational purposes. Not legal advice.

Last updated: September 24, 2026