The Donald Trump administration has introduced yet another measure that could affect non-immigrant visa holders in the US, by limiting the time they could stay on American soil.According to a proposed government regulation issued on Wednesday, students, cultural exchange visitors and members of the media would be affected by the tightening of the duration of visas.Who will be affectedThe latest move would create new hurdles for international students, exchange workers and foreign journalists who would have to apply to extend their stay in the US rather than maintain a more flexible legal status.The proposed regulation would create a fixed time period for F visas for international students, J visas that allow visitors on cultural exchange programs to work in the US, and I visas for members of the media. Those visas are currently available for the duration of the program or US-based employment. F,J, and I visa holders will now have less time to stay and work in the US (Photo: AP)There were about 1.6 million international students on F visas in the US in 2024, according to US government data. The US granted visas to about 355,000 exchange visitors and 13,000 members of the media in fiscal year 2024, which began on October 1, 2023.What are the proposed changesThe student and exchange visa periods would be no longer than four years, the proposed regulation said. The visa for journalists – which currently can last years – would be up to 240 days or, in the case of people with passports from China and Hong Kong, 90 days. The visa holders could apply for extensions, the proposal said.The Trump administration said in the proposed regulation that the change was needed to better “monitor and oversee” the visa holders while they were in the United States.Story continues below this adThe public will have 30 days to comment on the measure, which mirrors a proposal put forward in 2020 at the end of Trump’s first term in office.NAFSA, a non-profit organization representing international educators at more than 4,300 institutions worldwide, opposed the 2020 proposal and called on the Trump administration to scrap it. The Democratic administration of then-President Joe Biden withdrew it in 2021.How Trump has weaponised US visaThe Trump administration has increased scrutiny of legal immigration, revoking student visas and green cards of university students over their ideological views and stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of migrants.In an August 22 memo, US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it would resume long-dormant visits to citizenship applicants’ neighborhoods to check what it termed residency, moral character and commitment to American ideals.Story continues below this adThe Trump administration has also gone after another popular non-immigrant visa programme, H-1B, with United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently calling it a “scam”.“The current H-1B visa system is a scam that lets foreign workers fill American job opportunities,” he said during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. “Hiring American workers should be the priority of all great American businesses. Now is the time to hire American.”Since assuming office in January, President Trump has kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown, including the recently announced revocation of more than 6,000 international student visas because of violations of US law and overstays.