Hiring
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed charging $70,000 for each international student who takes part in Optional Practical Training for the first time, a fee that would put a steep new price on one of the main routes from U.S. campuses into U.S. jobs. The notice of proposed rulemaking, “Optional Practical Training Fees,” was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 8.
Optional Practical Training, or OPT, lets students on F-1 visas work in their field during or after their studies, and graduates in science, technology, engineering and math can extend it for up to 24 more months under the STEM OPT extension. Under the proposal, a $70,000 fee would apply to a student’s first OPT of any type and $30,000 to any later OPT.
The proposal puts the payment on schools, not employers. The rule text says the initial fee is one that an “SEVP-certified educational institution must pay for each F-1 nonimmigrant student” before a designated school official recommends the student for OPT, and that officials may not enter that recommendation until the fee is paid. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would not grant the work permit before payment. Schools could seek a refund if the student does not receive an OPT employment authorization document.
DHS says the fees are needed “to combat fraud, strengthen the integrity of the immigration system, and protect U.S. workers,” and argues that OPT has grown faster than it can review the companies involved. Its figures put 165,524 students in STEM OPT in 2024, which it says is nearly double the number of H-1B visas allowed each year, plus 194,554 students in pre- and post-completion OPT. The department goes further than a fee: it says that without the proposed fees it “may shut down the program entirely.”
The department estimates annualized transfers of $12.8 billion under its primary estimate, discounted at 3%.
What happens next
Comments are due by Nov. 9, 2026, under docket ICEB-2026-0100. Comments on the rule’s paperwork requirements run to Dec. 7. DHS proposes that a final rule take effect 60 days after it is published, to give schools, students and employers time to prepare.
Why it matters for employers
DHS’s own comparison with the H-1B cap shows how large OPT has become as a source of early-career workers, particularly in STEM fields. Even though schools, not employers, would pay, a fee of this size could reduce the number of students whose schools recommend them for OPT, and with it the pool of international graduates available to employers that hire through the program.
The catch
This is a proposal, not a final rule. The fees, who pays them and the timing can all change after the comment period, and nothing changes for students or employers until a final rule is published and takes effect.
Sources
- Federal Register, Department of Homeland Security, proposed rule “Optional Practical Training Fees,” October 8, 2026. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/08/2026-20660/optional-practical-training-fees
- Federal Register, full text of the proposed rule “Optional Practical Training Fees” (FR Doc. 2026-20660). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/text/2026/10/08/2026-20660.txt
Featured photo: Graduation day at Columbia University in New York City in May 2005. Representative image; not an OPT participant or a school named in the proposal. Photo: Jorge Royan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Cropped from the original.
