New Limits on Changing Majors and Transferring Schools for F-1 Undergraduates in First Academic Year Under SEVP Exception

DHS published a final rule on July 17, 2026, and it blocks F-1 undergraduates from changing majors or transferring schools during their first academic year unless there is an SEVP exception for extenuating circumstances. The change is prospective. It takes effect September 15, 2026. Colleges and students have a short window. The freeze starts then. Advising offices now have to rewrite their checklists.

The new limits apply to students who enter the United States on or after September 15, 2026. Program changes or transfers completed before that date are not affected, so the cutoff separates current records from future ones. After that first year, students can still move or switch, but only if they remain in status and use the school-transfer process. That leaves current students under the earlier playbook for now. Not before then.

DHS and Study in the States apply the restriction to students enrolled in programs below the graduate level. They treat a major change or a change in educational level as an educational objective, and they require one full academic year at the school that issued the Form I-20 before that move. The rule draws the line at the start of the degree path. Only an approved exception breaks it. No waiver, no switch.

The first-year bar is only part of the condition set. After that, the student cannot be on academic probation or suspension, and the record cannot show a pattern of repeated inability or unwillingness to complete the course of study. The school-transfer process still runs through SEVIS, so paperwork does not disappear once the calendar turns. The school still has to document the change. No shortcuts.

The rule puts changing majors and moving schools in the same box. DHS says the first-year restriction reaches both kinds of academic mobility for students below the graduate level. A major switch is not a side issue. It falls under the same line on the calendar. The same calendar now governs both moves. That matters at advising offices and international-student desks.

Campus offices have already started translating the federal language into student guidance. The University of Colorado Boulder says F-1 undergraduates may transfer or change majors on or after September 15, 2026 only after a year on campus unless an extenuating-circumstances exception applies. The University at Buffalo says the same limitation applies and adds that the year must be completed at the institution that first issued the Form I-20. Both pages tell students the rule is prospective, not retroactive. Students are watching dates closely. Advisors are, too.

DHS tied the student limits to a broader visa reset

The student limits sit inside a larger overhaul of the F-1 system. DHS also ended duration of status for F-1 students and replaced it with a fixed admission period and an extension-of-stay process. That shift reaches well beyond undergraduate majors. It changes the clock. A Shumaker client alert says the new system creates recurring administrative burden, because students whose programs extend past their I-94 expiration would have to file Form I-539 with USCIS or leave and reenter with a new I-20. The alert treats that as a recurring filing problem. Paperwork starts earlier now. Schools are reading it that way.

For students already in the country when the switch arrives, DHS created a transition rule. It covers current F and J status holders with D/S on Form I-94 on or before September 14, 2026. The new fixed authorized-stay period ends at the earliest of three dates. The third is the backstop.

The same rule also cuts the post-completion grace period from 60 days to 30 days. That shorter runway begins with the effective date. For most F-1 students, November 14, 2030 is the outside date if the fixed-stay period would otherwise run longer. The new calendar is set. The backstop is November 14, 2030.