00:00Jill, how much do we know about this new rule? How clear are we?
00:05Hey, morning, Heslinda. So at this point, this is actually a fairly significant change.
00:10As you just outlined, under the current rules for these F&J visas, I will point out there's about 1
00:15.5 million students that are in the United States on these types of visas.
00:19They're allowed to stay sort of as long as their studies last.
00:23It's very different from other forms of non-immigrant visas in the United States.
00:26And so as long as they're enrolled in sort of the minimum number of credits that they need at these
00:32universities, they can stay.
00:33Under this new rule, though, as you just mentioned, this imposes a four-year limit.
00:38Before then, if they need to stay in the United States for longer to continue their studies, they actually have
00:43to go and seek more duration of time.
00:48They have to seek an extension, provide some biometric data.
00:50And basically, you know, it sort of handled this in a way where previously maybe their universities would have helped
00:56coordinate this.
00:57But again, this does impose a pretty significant barrier here.
00:59So very, very, very different change.
01:02It's a different change.
01:03Who is it likely to hit the worst?
01:06I mean, we know that lots of Chinese and Indian students in the U.S.
01:11Yes, exactly right.
01:13So I would expect this to, you know, looking at China, South Korea, India, as you mentioned, those students that,
01:20you know, are, you know, from these nations where there are a lot of them in the United States.
01:24I mean, look, Linda, there's already been a fair amount of tightening going on over visa restrictions for people coming
01:32into the United States to study and in other capacities.
01:35We actually saw last year a 1.4 percent drop in the overall number of foreign students enrolled in universities,
01:43including a 17 percent drop in the number of incoming students.
01:47So, I mean, you're looking at a pretty significant number there, and that's in addition to various other forms of,
01:52you know, either visa scrutiny restrictions that are kind of going on here.
01:56There's been, you know, some delays in terms of applications.
01:59And so all of that is kind of contributing to this environment where you are seeing a pretty significant number,
02:04a smaller number of students that are actually coming into the United States to study.
02:09And in the end, Jill, you can only imagine that fewer and fewer international students would find the U.S.
02:16an attractive place to go to school.
02:19Yeah, I mean, this is something that, you know, we've been seeing for a few years now.
02:23Obviously, the United States under the Trump administration has taken a much stricter approach to immigration policy.
02:28So we are seeing that sort of manifest in various forms, obviously, you know, that sort of extends to a
02:35broader approach toward immigration enforcement that the Trump administration is looking at.
02:39But, yes, I mean, student visas is obviously a significant part of that.
02:42So it does raise questions about, you know, sort of the ability of a lot of these, you know, major
02:49universities to attract foreign students who are paying quite high tuition fees when they visit.
02:54To some fraud investigations as well, right?
02:58Yes, that's right.
02:59So there is a program on the OTP program.
03:01That's one that's, you know, under, you know, sort of investigation for fraud.
03:05And so, again, does raise the possibility that while you do have these new visa restrictions that are being instituted
03:11on those applications right now,
03:13does raise that question of whether or not there's going to be further tightening on the types of visas that
03:18students and programs that students can achieve in the future in the United States.
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