The Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU) launched a petition last month for Stanford to support international student and graduate worker communities following restrictive changes and fee hikes within the student visa system.

The SGWU’s concerns came after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced updates to international student visas in July. The government said those changes aimed to reduce the incidence of “visa abuse” in the U.S., in which international students use a student visa while taking few or no classes to live and work in the country illegally.

The changes, which will take effect Sept. 15, include: limiting the length of an approved stay to four years, in contrast to the previous “length of whole program”; a reduction in the post-graduation grace period, requiring international students to leave the U.S. within 30 days as opposed to 60; and a more comprehensive extension request process, run by the federal government instead of universities and utilizing biometric screenings.

Bechtel International Center executive director Parinaz Zartoshty said the center was committed to following visa regulations as they shift over time. “Here at Stanford we are very much compliant with the rules and regulations of the student visas, whether that’s F1 or J1 […] a big part of Bechtel’s role is the compliance piece,” she said. Zartoshty cited policies and systems in place to ensure that visa abuse does not occur at Stanford, including minimum unit and GPA requirements for good standing.

SGWU campus chief steward Helene Koumans and SGWU biosciences co-chief steward Gisel DeLaCerda said that changes like these have a “chilling” effect, making international students feel unwelcome and unvalued. Graduate students, over a third of whom were international in the fall of 2025, are what “makes this university run” by teaching classes and contributing to research, Koumans told The Daily. 

Koumans fears that these restrictions will be particularly unfair to graduate students, as the average length for a PhD at Stanford is 5.7 years, well over the maximum non-extension term length of four years.

The union hopes that Stanford will raise its current $1,200 visa fee reimbursement to cover higher costs of attendance for international students and to reverse its own new fees. It also called on the University to prevent graduate worker’s information from being disclosed without a judicial warrant and to guarantee the right to work remotely if needed.

One student — who requested anonymity because of their international status — described growing discomfort with the new restrictions.

“The one reason why I came to the U.S. to study was because of how flexible it is to change majors, [to] study many things at once,” they said. The student contrasted this with strict course schedules and major-change processes in other countries.

They added that a fear of backlash from the federal government kept them from speaking out more formally. “At the moment, I’m definitely more scared to like a post criticizing Trump than a post criticizing [my government],” they said.

They cited the Trump administration’s crackdown on Harvard and its international students as an example of the retaliation they feared.

“Stanford doesn’t just buckle under mean words or angry emails. They change their mind when grad workers come together and organize,” said Koumans. DeLaCerda echoed this sentiment: “It is imperative that we are able to take collective action in order to maintain and expand our rights.”

“When it comes time to bargain with Stanford and fight for our rights, we will be all the more stronger if we are shoulder-to-shoulder with our international graduate worker siblings,” said Koumans.