What the end of Duration of Status (D/S) can teach universities about connecting immigration, advising, and career planning.
I recently had the opportunity to join a panel hosted by Oakland University’s Office of Global Engagement, titled “Duration of Status Is Ending: What Every F-1 Student Needs to Know.”
Joining me were Luke Bowman, immigration attorney, and Adem Althor, Executive Director of Global Engagement at Oakland University, with Joanne Tarling and Petra Knoche facilitating the conversation.
The session was, appropriately, heavily focused on immigration. Students had many questions about the transition from Duration of Status to the new Admit Until Date framework, travel and reentry, extensions of stay, OPT/STEM OPT, program timelines, and what they should do before the September 15, 2026 implementation date.
And with more than 130 students attending, there was clearly a strong need for answers.
But as I listened to the questions, I kept hearing something underneath the immigration questions:
Students were not only asking, “What does this rule mean?”
They were also asking:
“What does this mean for my future?”
That distinction matters.
The question behind the question
At one point, I asked students who were planning to use OPT after graduation to use the Zoom reactions to give us a thumbs-up.
At first, only a few hands appeared.
Then more started popping up.
And more.
It was a simple moment, but it reinforced something important: for many international students, immigration status and career planning are not separate journeys. They are deeply connected.
One student asked whether the new rules would change how much time they would have to find a job after receiving their EAD.
Legally, that question has a specific answer.
But from a career perspective, I would encourage students to ask a different question:
“What can I do today so that I am already building toward employment before that clock starts?”
That is where career advising, coaching, and cross-campus support become especially important.
The goal is not to replace immigration advice with career advice. Luke’s role is to explain what the rules mean legally. My role is to help students think about what those changes may mean for their career planning.
And the message I wanted students to leave with was simple:
You may not be able to control how the regulatory environment changes, but you can control how prepared you are for your next career step.
Five career questions hidden inside immigration questions
Several questions that surfaced during the session appeared to be about immigration. But each also contained a career-readiness dimension.
1. “I am graduating soon. What happens to my OPT?”
The immigration question is about eligibility, timing, and work authorization.
The career question is:
Have you already started preparing for employment?
Students should not wait until graduation—or until they receive an EAD—to begin building their professional network.
Networking, researching employers, developing skills, preparing a resume, practicing interviews, and understanding target industries can happen well before employment authorization begins.
The unemployment allowance should be viewed as a safety net, not as the career-planning period.
2. “My PhD may take longer than expected. What does that mean?”
Again, there is an immigration component.
But there is also a planning question:
What happens to your career timeline if your academic timeline changes?
For a doctoral student, the conversation should not begin only when graduation is approaching.
Students can be asking much earlier:
- What careers are available beyond academia?
- Which employers hire people with my expertise?
- What skills do I need to demonstrate?
- Who should I be building relationships with?
- How does my academic work translate into employer language?
When the academic timeline changes, the career timeline should be revisited at the same time.
3. “Do I have to apply for an extension?”
This is primarily an immigration question.
But it may also be an opportunity for the student to step back and ask:
What decisions am I making next—and how early do I need to prepare for them?
Whether the next step is OPT, another degree, a postdoctoral position, or employment, students benefit from understanding the intersection between their academic plans, career goals, and immigration timeline.
They don’t need to become immigration experts.
They do need to become proactive planners.
4. “Should I tell an employer about these changes?”
This is where career and immigration perspectives can easily intersect.
Students should not assume that every employer understands the nuances of immigration policy. At the same time, they should not approach employers from a position of fear or uncertainty.
The goal is professional communication:
Know your situation. Understand what you can legally do. Understand what the employer needs to know. And be able to communicate your work authorization clearly and confidently.
That is a career skill—not simply an immigration skill.
5. “How much time do I have to find a job?”
This was the question that stayed with me most.
Because the most useful answer may not be a number.
It may be:
Don’t wait for the clock to start before you start preparing.
Students can build relationships before they are authorized to work.
They can research employers.
They can attend career events.
They can conduct informational interviews.
They can develop skills.
They can practice communicating their values.
They can learn how their academic experience translates into professional opportunities.
Career readiness can begin long before work authorization does.
This is bigger than one office
One of the things I appreciated most about Oakland University’s approach was the willingness to bring different perspectives into the same conversation.
The Global Engagement team recognized that students were receiving a rapidly changing stream of information and created a space where they could ask questions and hear from people with different areas of expertise.
That matters.
International student success cannot be owned by one office.
An immigration advisor may receive a question that has significant career implications.
A career advisor may hear a question that has immigration implications.
A faculty member may hear an academic concern that affects both.
A student may not know which office to approach in the first place.
And this is where I believe universities can do more—not by asking every professional to become an expert in everything, but by helping professionals connect the dots.
What this looks like across campus
For immigration advisors
A student may ask:
“What happens to my OPT if my timeline changes?”
The immigration advisor may understandably focus on the regulatory answer.
But there is another question worth asking:
“What does this mean for your career timeline?”
That doesn’t mean providing career counseling outside one’s role. It means recognizing when a referral or connection to career services could make the student’s next decision stronger.
For career services
A student may say:
“I’m worried about getting a job because of the changes to F-1 rules.”
It can be tempting to think, This is an immigration question; that’s not our domain.
But career professionals can still help students identify what is within their control:
career exploration
employer research
networking
skill development
interviewing
professional communication
career timelines
The career conversation does not have to answer the immigration question.
It can answer:
“Given what you know today, how can we make you more career-ready?”
For faculty members
A student may say:
“I’m worried because my graduation timeline might change.”
A faculty member may understandably focus on academic progress.
But there may also be an opportunity to ask:
“How might this affect your plans after graduation, and who else on campus should we connect you with?”
Faculty don’t need to provide immigration or career advice.
They can help students recognize that other support exists.
The goal isn’t to blur boundaries. It’s to connect them.
This is an important distinction.
Cross-campus collaboration does not mean asking immigration advisors to become career counselors, career counselors to become immigration attorneys, or faculty to become international student advisors.
It means creating enough awareness across the institution that professionals can recognize:
“This question touches another part of the student’s journey.”
Then we connect the student to the right person.
That is what a truly student-centered support system can look like.
This is the thinking behind iCEP
This experience also reinforced for me why I developed the iCEP framework: Internationalization, Coaching, Empowerment, and Practicality.
I — Internationalization
Creating a sense of belonging through cross-cultural empathy enables advisors to understand international students’ unique challenges and unlock their potential.
International students are not simply students with a visa category. Their cultural context, experiences, expectations, and sense of belonging shape how they understand and respond to uncertainty.
C — Coaching
Coaching means helping students think through uncertainty rather than simply giving them answers.
Sometimes the most valuable response is another question:
What does this mean for your goals?
What can you control?
What should you be thinking about next?
E — Empowerment
Empowerment means encouraging students to take ownership of their career journey early.
Build relationships.
Explore career paths.
Develop skills.
Practice networking.
Understand employers.
Don’t wait until the final semester to begin.
P — Practicality
Practicality means connecting career aspirations to the realities students are navigating—including CPT and OPT timelines, work authorization, academic requirements, and other constraints.
The objective is not to create fear.
It is to help students plan realistically and act proactively.
What Oakland reminded me
I was especially grateful to be part of this conversation because Oakland’s Global Engagement team demonstrated something that universities can easily overlook during periods of uncertainty:
Students need somewhere to bring their questions.
They need people willing to listen.
They need accurate information.
They need professionals who can say, “We don’t know that yet, but we’ll find out.”
And sometimes they need someone to help them see that the question they are asking is actually connected to a much bigger decision.
I also appreciated Luke’s emphasis throughout the session on being proactive, asking questions before making decisions, maintaining good communication, and keeping good records. His legal perspective helped students understand where the boundaries and uncertainties are—and that foundation is essential.
But once students understand the legal landscape, we can ask another question:
How do we help them continue moving forward?
From uncertainty to agency
Regulatory uncertainty can make international students feel as though their future is entirely outside their control.
It isn’t.
- They may not control government policy.
- They may not control processing times.
- They may not control employer hiring decisions.
But they can control whether they start building relationships today.
- They can control whether they understand their target industry.
- They can control whether they develop relevant skills.
- They can control whether they are prepared to communicate their value.
- They can control whether they seek guidance early.
- And they can control whether they treat career preparation as something that begins before they need work authorization—not after.
So perhaps the better question isn’t:
“How much time will I have to find a job?”
Perhaps it is:
“What can I do today so that I am already moving toward my career goal when that time comes?”
That shift—from counting down the clock to building readiness—is one of the most important conversations we can have with international students.
And it is a conversation that belongs across campus.
That is iCEP thinking.
This article reflects observations and career-support perspectives from a student panel discussion. It is not immigration or legal advice. Individual students should consult their designated school officials and qualified immigration professionals regarding their specific circumstances.
This article reflects observations and career-support perspectives from a student panel discussion. It is not immigration or legal advice. Individual students should consult their designated school officials and qualified immigration professionals regarding their specific circumstances.
Author
Kwan Segal is the Founder and CEO of ICAway and creator of Internationalization, Coaching, Empowerment, and Practicality (iCEP), an institutional alignment framework that combines professional development, facilitation, and cross-functional collaboration to help colleges and universities strengthen support for international student career success across existing campus functions.
