President Biden issued a memorandum on January 20, 2021 “...to ensure that the President’s appointees or designees have the opportunity to review any new or pending rules.” Paragraph 2 of the memorandum requires that all rules from the previous administration that were pending publication in the Federal Register but were not yet published be withdrawn for review.
This includes the Proposed Rule the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published on September 25, 2020 that would eliminate “duration of status” (D/S) for F students and their dependents, and J students and scholars and their dependents. D/S would be replaced with a fixed period of time determined before arrival.
The Department of Homeland Security received more than 32,000 comments regarding the Proposed Rule. The Rule was not published in the Federal Register. It is unlikely that it will be published or implemented upon review, but ISSO is monitoring any developments.
