The U.S. Department of State has updated the maximum authorized visa validity period for certain visa classifications for Chinese nationals. Effective immediately, Chinese nationals applying for visitor visas (B-1/B-2), student visas (F-1), exchange visitor visas (J-1) or vocational student visas (M-1), as well as their qualifying family members, are eligible to receive visas with validity periods of up to 10 years. Previously, these same classifications were limited to a maximum validity period of 12 months. The validity periods of all other visa classifications for nationals of China remain unchanged.