US visa proposal: 4-year student visas, 240-day limit for foreign journalists
Washington D.C.: The Trump administration has recently unveiled a proposal to restrict the duration of visas for international students, cultural exchange visitors, and foreign journalists, in a bid to curb visa abuse and strengthen immigration controls.
The proposed rule seeks to replace the existing “duration of status” system, in place since 1978, with fixed visa terms.
"For too long, past administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the US virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amounts of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantaging US citizens," a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said, adding that this proposed rule would close those loopholes by limiting how long certain visa holders can stay.
The Trump administration says that the changes will prevent abuses such as “forever students” who remain enrolled to prolong their stay.
Under the new framework, student and exchange visas would be capped at four years, while foreign journalists (I visas) would be limited to 240 days, with options for extension. Meanwhile, Chinese nationals holding journalist visas would be subject to an even stricter limit of 90 days.
Visa holders wishing to remain in the country beyond the fixed term would need to apply for an extension through US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), enabling DHS to conduct additional reviews of their status and activities.
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Indigo flights chaos: SCR to run special trains to clear passenger rush
Hyderabad (PTI): The South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights here.
The move comes as flyers face significant disruption and long queues at the airport due to the cancellation.
A press release from the SCR said it is running the special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers to Chennai, Mumbai and Shalimar (Kolkata) from Hyderabad today.
Meanwhile, as many as 43 outbound Indigo flights were cancelled from here on Saturday, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport sources said.
Similarly, 26 incoming flights are also likely to be cancelled during the day, they said.
The flight cancellations drew ire from passengers, who thronged the IndiGo counters at the airport demanding to know the exact situation.
“This is utter nonsense! Digiyatra done, message received that departure has been rescheduled ahead of the scheduled departure and now upon arriving at Hyderabad airport coming to know at the security checkpoint that Indigo flight is cancelled,” Tarun Singha, former Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a post on X.
“But the thing is if you don’t shout they do nothing. Example at Hyderabad Airport, there was no staff no flight information for an hour. Then a fellow passenger started shouting on mic and an Indigo staff appeared finally,” a netizen said in a post.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports, its CEO Pieter Elbers apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
