F-1 “duration of status” ends Sept. 15. Your I-94 gets a hard end date, and travel can flip you early.

On September 15, 2026, the long “D/S” line on many F-1 I-94 records starts to disappear for new admissions. The Department of Homeland Security published the final rule on July 17. Study in the States and campus international offices are now counting down the same date. After that day, most F-1 and J-1 admissions carry a fixed Admit Until Date instead of duration of status. For India- and China-origin student households that already treat the Visa Bulletin like weather, this is a second calendar to put on the fridge.

Duration of status was the old system: you stayed while you kept a valid Form I-20, followed the rules, and your I-94 often just said “D/S.” The new system is closer to a lease. Customs and Border Protection will write a calendar end date based on the program length on your I-20, not to exceed four years, plus short arrival and departure windows. Need more time for a long Ph.D., a late thesis, or another program step? Your Designated School Official still matters, but USCIS now sits in the middle. You generally file Form I-539 to extend stay before the Admit Until Date runs out.

Two household numbers change right away for people who enter or reenter under the new rule. The post-completion grace period for F-1 students drops from 60 days to 30. And every extra semester or OPT stretch that outruns the Admit Until Date becomes a filing event with a fee, biometrics appointment, and processing wait, not only a school update in SEVIS. Secondary fee guides have put the I-539 filing cost near $420 online or $470 on paper, but USCIS adjusts fees. Check the live fee calculator before you budget. Premium processing, when available for a related change or extension path, is a separate four-figure line.

If you are already in the United States on D/S on September 15, you are not automatically booted the next morning. Transition rules generally let you ride your current I-20 or OPT end date, subject to a roughly four-year cap from the effective date plus grace. University ISS pages at places like Columbia, UT Dallas, and Rice are blunt about the catch: leave the country and reenter on or after September 15, and CBP will likely issue a fixed Admit Until Date. That reentry can also cut your grace to 30 days and pull you into Extension of Stay filings sooner, including for some OPT and STEM OPT paths that had a short transition window into March 2027.

Optional Practical Training is not deleted. DHS materials say OPT and STEM OPT remain, with more paperwork layered on. Students still on transition rules who timely file for post-completion OPT or STEM OPT by March 18, 2027 may avoid a separate Extension of Stay in some cases, according to Fragomen and several campus summaries. Travel after the effective date can erase that courtesy. Treat a Diwali trip or a wedding at home as a status decision, not only an airfare decision.

Academic mobility gets tighter too. Undergraduates generally cannot transfer schools or change majors in the first year without an SEVP exception. Graduate students face broader limits on transferring and changing educational objectives. After you finish a level, starting another F-1 program at the same or a lower level is generally barred for completions after the effective date. DHS left itself room to delay some of those mobility pieces, so watch SEVP notices. The direction of travel is already clear: fewer casual pivots mid-degree.

Dependents feel it with you. F-2 and J-2 spouses and children get fixed Admit Until Dates that generally cannot run past the principal. When the student needs an extension, the family usually needs one too, often filed together. A spouse job search, a child’s school year, and a parent visit all now sit next to one shared expiration clock.

The reader set is large. Open Doors 2025 counted about 1.18 million international students in the United States in 2024/25. India led with about 363,000. China followed with about 266,000. South Korea remained third. Those households already juggle tuition wires, OPT job hunts, H-1B lotteries, and green-card math. A fixed I-94 date does not invent those pressures. It makes the deadline visible on a government form you can screenshot.

This is educational context, not legal advice for your SEVIS record. Before September 15, pull your latest I-94 and I-20, ask your DSO how your program and any OPT plan map onto an Admit Until Date, and price one Extension of Stay filing the way you price rent. If family in India or China expects you home for a long visit this fall, run the travel scenario both ways: stay put and keep transition rules, or reenter into the fixed-date system. Put the fee and a cash buffer in the Family Support Budget Calculator so a surprise I-539 does not raid the remittance line.

For status and dual-career sequencing after school, start with Visa, Job Change, and Benefits Gap Basics for Diaspora Professionals and Visa and Job Change Runway When Leave Means Status Risk. Couples sharing one clock should keep Dual-Career Visa Household Planning for Diaspora Couples beside Relocation Offer Evaluation for Diaspora Professionals with Family Support.