International students looking to study in the U.S. are getting very mixed signals from the Trump administration.

Days after President Trump said it is "very important" to have Chinese students at American schools, prompting backlash from his MAGA base, his administration proposed a rule change capping a foreign student’s stay to four years to complete a degree and requiring special approval to stay longer.

“For too long, past Administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the U.S. virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amount of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantaging U.S. citizens,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said in the release.

But hundreds of thousands of foreign students in the U.S. are graduate students, with a Ph.D. program taking as long as eight years in some cases.

Experts worry the new approval won’t be a smooth process would disrupt international students’ studies, causing them to seek universities in other countries despite the president looking for more students to come to the U.S.

Trump had already made sweeping student visa crackdowns a key part of his immigration policies, with the State Department

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