Rajiv's Comments in Financial Express - F1 students must file first, travel after: Immigration lawyer’s urgent warning ahead of Sep 15 deadline
Published by Financial Express - July 20, 2026
Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv in the article:
In an exclusive interaction with Financial Express, US-based immigration attorney Rajiv S. Khanna said the part of the rule generating the most confusion and carrying the most risk is travel.
‘Nothing happens when you leave. It happens when you come back’
Khanna said students should not think of September 15 as a deadline by which they must complete paperwork. “If you are properly maintaining status that day, you are transitioned by operation of law,” he said. “You file nothing.
You will not receive a new I-94, and the one you hold will keep saying D/S, which is precisely the danger: your deadline now exists whether or not anything is printed on it.”
Travel after September 15 could completely change your status
According to Khanna, the real turning point comes when a student leaves the US and tries to return.”Travel is where I would concentrate,” the told Financial Express Digital.
“Nothing happens when you leave. It happens when you come back. Anyone applying for admission as an F nonimmigrant after September 15 is inspected and admitted under the new rules, for the program length on the I-20 or four years, whichever is shorter.”
“So if a student is weighing a trip in August against a trip in November, August is materially safer, because an admission before the effective date is still a duration-of-status admission, and it carries that student into the transition category rather than the new fixed-date regime,” he added.
The grace period could be cut in half
Khanna believes this is the part many students may overlook. According to him, the admission date itself may not change much after re-entry. The real loss is the grace period students receive after completing their studies.
“The transition category holds sixty days. A student readmitted under the new regime holds thirty. A summer trip home cuts your runway in half, permanently, and nobody at the airport will mention it.”
File your paperwork before you travel, lawyer advises
Khanna says students should not panic and rush to submit their Optional Practical Training (OPT) application before September 15. Students who are already in the US have until March 18, 2027, to apply for post-completion OPT without needing a separate extension of stay application.
However, he says one thing is extremely important: complete your immigration paperwork before leaving the country.
“Do not rush the OPT filing before September 15,” he said. “But do file it before you travel, because a student who departs before filing and is then readmitted with a fixed period of admission must file both. File first, travel after.”
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