If enacted, the proposal would successfully bar hundreds of worldwide college students from collaborating in OPT, having a doubtlessly devastating influence on inbound worldwide mobility to US universities.
Completely broken yesterday by the Washington Submit, information of the plans got here via an individual conversant in the matter talking below anonymity.
The plans are purportedly nonetheless below dialogue, and a spokesperson for the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) stated “no insurance policies needs to be thought-about last till formally introduced”, however didn’t deny it was into consideration.
“Our immigration system is being reformed to serve Americans, American employees, and American households and to protect our nationwide identification – to not quickly import foreigners who take American jobs, commit crimes, steal our mental property and interact in company espionage, and erode our cultural and social material,” they informed The PIE Information.
In its present type, OPT affords worldwide college students a possibility to work within the US for 12 months. These taking STEM OPT have the possibility to increase their work interval by an extra two years.
Worldwide college students stay on their F-1 visa all through this system, although following the administration’s last rule ending duration of status, from September they’ll be required to file for an extension of stick with DHS.
This system has been central to America’s attraction because the world’s largest host nation of worldwide college students, with practically 295,000 complete OPT contributors in 2024/25 in accordance with the latest data from IIE.
The workstream’s rising reputation has been the driver of rising worldwide pupil ranges lately, with OPT contributors counted in F-1 pupil totals.
In 2024/25, OPT noticed a continued improve of 21% – just under the earlier 12 months’s development fee and largely pushed by Indian college students who made up slightly below half (49%) of all OPT contributors.
The college sector has lengthy been anticipating a change to the post-graduation work program, with repeated calls from within government for its abolition, with the pinnacle of ICE not too long ago branding this system a “magnet for fraud”.
It’s understood that DHS continues to be planning a broad overhaul of OPT, with new rules anticipated this fall.
Notably, if the rumoured $100,000 charge is enacted, it stays unclear whether or not the cost could be burdened by worldwide college students themselves or potential universities and employers.
At DHS we’re all the time having conversations about the way to use all instruments in our arsenal to guard the integrity of our authorized immigration system
DHS
Final 12 months, Trump’s shock announcement of a $100,000 charge on H-1B expert employee visas was met with fierce criticism from US universities and potential employers significantly in Silicon Valley.
It was later clarified that worldwide college students could be exempted from the cost, and final week a federal appeals court docket blocked the administration’s bid to start out gathering the brand new $100,000 charge for H-1B visas.
If hooked up to OPT, the charge may drastically worsen the declining circulate of worldwide college students to the US, with six in ten US faculties reporting a fall in worldwide pupil purposes following 18 months of coverage turbulence and visa challenges throughout Trump’s second administration.
The workstream is often cited as one of many main causes for college students selecting to check within the US, with over half of present postgraduate college students indicating they wouldn’t have enrolled at an American college had OPT been rescinded, a latest NAFSA examine discovered.
With extra focus than ever on post-graduation work alternatives and questions concerning the ROI of a US diploma, unwell Colvin SVP international options at Shorelight described OPT as “the infrastructure for American success”.
I can’t think about a world the place we compete with out OPT,” he stated, talking at a serious business convention earlier this 12 months.
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