US regulatory agenda for 2026 aims to end “duration of status” and introduce Optional Practical Training and H-1B reforms

On 6 July 2026, departments across the US federal government published a unified regulatory agenda for the year ahead. The Department of Homeland Security’s submission is the one most relevant to international students in the US, and it contains a number of important signals for actual and potential regulatory change in the coming months.

The end of duration of status?

DHS, which includes United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says it will publish an updated rule establishing a fixed time period for international student visas in July 2026.

Updated guidance from immigration law specialists Fragomen explains: "This month, DHS plans to issue final regulation that will end the longstanding practice of admitting foreign students (F nonimmigrants), exchange visitors (J nonimmigrants) and media representatives (I nonimmigrants) to the United States for the duration of their program – known as 'duration of status' – and switch to admitting individuals in these categories with a fixed expiration date, after which they will be required to file an extension with the immigration authorities in order to remain in the United States."

For those who would like additional background on the forthcoming rule, we have written extensively about the pending changes to duration of status. Details of DHS' proposed rule from August 2025 are here.

This rule change has been anticipated all year and has the potential to introduce significant aspects of uncertainty and disruption for foreign students in the US. As such, we might expect that it will also be subject to legal challenge on publication.

Proposals pending for practical training

The newly published agenda for 2026 carries over an item from the prior agenda pertaining to practical training.

Details of the planned reforms are now anticipated in February 2027. For the moment, DHS says only that, "The proposed rule will better align practical training to the goals and objectives of the program while providing more clarity to the public. The proposed rule will amend existing regulations to address fraud and national security concerns, protect US workers from being displaced by foreign nationals, and enhance the Student and Exchange Visitor Program’s capacity to oversee the program."

To the extent that those reforms affect the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme, this could be another very consequential change in policy settings.

Of the 1,177,766 foreign students in the US in 2025, just over 294,000 (or about one in four) were in OPT. Participation in the programme was up 21% year-over-year from 2024 to 2025, continuing a multi-year programme of significant growth in programme participation.

Beyond its sheer scale, OPT is a critical aspect of the US offer to international students as it is the most widely used pathway to post-study work for foreign graduates. In a 2025 survey of current international students conducted by NAFSA and the Institute for Progress, 54% of respondents said they would not have enrolled at a US university had OPT not been available to them.

H-1B reforms

In another continuation of an item from the previous regulatory agenda, DHS say it intends to proceed with reforms to the H-1B work visa programme.

First published in August 2025, this amounts to a statement of intent to reform the programme "by revising eligibility for cap exemptions, providing greater scrutiny for employers that have violated program requirements, and increasing oversight over third party placements, among other provisions. These changes are intended to improve the integrity of the H-1B nonimmigrant program and better protect US workers’ wages and working conditions."

There is no other detail in the agenda docs, except that the Department expects to publish its proposals for H-1B in August 2026.

For additional background, please see:

• "There are more international students in the US than ever in 2025, but commencements are declining"
• "US to end 'Duration of Status' for F, J, and I visas and limit the time international students can study in the US"
• "What international students need to know about study and work visas in the United States"