10 August 2026
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Korea JoongAng Daily - Daily News from Korea
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New U.S. rules and proposals are prompting Korean students and families to rethink study and work plans in America.
When Park first moved to New York for college from Korea, she loved the sense of open-ended possibility her education offered.
She graduated from a competitive international school in Korea where about 95 percent of her class went on to study in the United States, and she pictured a future built around career freedom and doing things on her own terms.
Three years later, the soon-to-be-junior, who is studying communications and asked to be identified only by her surname, is living in a different reality — one shaped by quiet self-censorship and mounting anxiety under U.S. President Donald Trump's shifting policies toward international students.
"People have gotten really quiet," Park told the Korea JoongAng Daily. "There's a hush-hush feeling among students when it comes to talking about politics or immigration. Everyone's warning each other to be careful on social media — even telling friends not to post things that could be risky."
As Washington rolls out new policies that could affect international students' prospects of studying — and finding jobs after graduating — the caution now comes with real financial and legal stakes attached.
F-1 visas cover most international students enrolled full-time at U.S. colleges and universities, including many completing internships during their studies through a separate work authorization called Curricular Practical Training (CPT).
Under a federal rule taking effect Sept. 15, F-1 status will no longer grant an open-ended "duration of status" (D/S). Instead, visa admissions will carry a fixed maximum period of four years.
For students moving on to Optional Practical Training (OPT) or extended-STEM OPT after graduation, this shift means they will often need to file a separate Extension of Stay application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
OPT work can't legally start until that application is approved, creating a real chance of a gap between finishing school and being cleared to work, adding friction to a hiring process many employers already found slow and unpredictable.
"My parents have told me to look into options abroad more broadly — not to just assume it has to be the United States — and to check out places like Canada or Australia," Park said.
Park's experience is not an unfamiliar one across the U.S. higher education pipeline.
As the U.S. back-to-school season approaches, Korean international students are grappling with a series of policy moves from Washington — with more potentially still to come.
In addition to the finalized rule scrapping duration of status in favor of a four-year visa cap, reports revealed that the Trump administration is weighing a $100,000 fee on OPT, the postgraduation work permit that allows international graduates to work in the United States for one to three years.
Neither policy singles out Korean students, but the timing has landed hard in a country that sends more students to U.S. universities than almost anywhere else — Korea was the third-largest source of international students in the United States in the 2024/25 academic year, behind only India and China, according to the Institute of International Education.
On "Mijunmo," a Naver online community used by Koreans to trade advice on living in the United States, posts titled "Worried about OPT" have piled up by the day.
"A huge cost burden makes companies reluctant to hire us, and that makes it harder to hold onto our legal status here," said Hong, who is entering his third year at an American university and asked to be identified only by his surname. "Massive fees turn into corporate hiring avoidance. It makes you ask: Is it really worth insisting on staying in the United States at that kind of cost and uncertainty?"
The hesitation reaches students before they even set foot on a U.S. campus.
One student accepted into a UCLA graduate program starting this fall — iden...
When Park first moved to New York for college from Korea, she loved the sense of open-ended possibility her education offered.
She graduated from a competitive international school in Korea where about 95 percent of her class went on to study in the United States, and she pictured a future built around career freedom and doing things on her own terms.
Three years later, the soon-to-be-junior, who is studying communications and asked to be identified only by her surname, is living in a different reality — one shaped by quiet self-censorship and mounting anxiety under U.S. President Donald Trump's shifting policies toward international students.
"People have gotten really quiet," Park told the Korea JoongAng Daily. "There's a hush-hush feeling among students when it comes to talking about politics or immigration. Everyone's warning each other to be careful on social media — even telling friends not to post things that could be risky."
As Washington rolls out new policies that could affect international students' prospects of studying — and finding jobs after graduating — the caution now comes with real financial and legal stakes attached.
F-1 visas cover most international students enrolled full-time at U.S. colleges and universities, including many completing internships during their studies through a separate work authorization called Curricular Practical Training (CPT).
Under a federal rule taking effect Sept. 15, F-1 status will no longer grant an open-ended "duration of status" (D/S). Instead, visa admissions will carry a fixed maximum period of four years.
For students moving on to Optional Practical Training (OPT) or extended-STEM OPT after graduation, this shift means they will often need to file a separate Extension of Stay application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
OPT work can't legally start until that application is approved, creating a real chance of a gap between finishing school and being cleared to work, adding friction to a hiring process many employers already found slow and unpredictable.
"My parents have told me to look into options abroad more broadly — not to just assume it has to be the United States — and to check out places like Canada or Australia," Park said.
Park's experience is not an unfamiliar one across the U.S. higher education pipeline.
As the U.S. back-to-school season approaches, Korean international students are grappling with a series of policy moves from Washington — with more potentially still to come.
In addition to the finalized rule scrapping duration of status in favor of a four-year visa cap, reports revealed that the Trump administration is weighing a $100,000 fee on OPT, the postgraduation work permit that allows international graduates to work in the United States for one to three years.
Neither policy singles out Korean students, but the timing has landed hard in a country that sends more students to U.S. universities than almost anywhere else — Korea was the third-largest source of international students in the United States in the 2024/25 academic year, behind only India and China, according to the Institute of International Education.
On "Mijunmo," a Naver online community used by Koreans to trade advice on living in the United States, posts titled "Worried about OPT" have piled up by the day.
"A huge cost burden makes companies reluctant to hire us, and that makes it harder to hold onto our legal status here," said Hong, who is entering his third year at an American university and asked to be identified only by his surname. "Massive fees turn into corporate hiring avoidance. It makes you ask: Is it really worth insisting on staying in the United States at that kind of cost and uncertainty?"
The hesitation reaches students before they even set foot on a U.S. campus.
One student accepted into a UCLA graduate program starting this fall — iden...