Optional Practical Training

OPT Requirements Any F-1 visa international student who graduates from a U.S college or university qualifies for OPT. Additionally they must work either part-time (20 hours a week or more) or full time. A student who has completed more than a year of full-time Curricular Practical Training is not eligible for Optional Practical Training. For the STEM OPT extension, there are additional requirements: • The student must have studies in a STEM field. The Department of Homeland Security bases its definition of "STEM field" on the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). DHS frequently updates a list of study programs that count as STEM. There are currently 540 STEM field majors. The last update was on January 21, 2022. • Employer that is enrolled in or uses E-Verify. For STEM OPT, an employer, along with the worker, must fill out Form I-983. International startup founders often seek to use the OPT period for achieving funding and growth milestones which qualify them for "extraordinary ability" visas, such as the O visa. == OPT Statistics ==

One place to look for statistics on yearly OPT authorizations is Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In 2021, there were 115,651 new OPT authorizations, a 105% increase from a decade ago. In 2019, there were 72,116 new STEM OPT authorizations. Compared to a decade prior, it is an 1108% increase. OPT Approvals & Denials from 2008-2013 The Government Accountability Office published a report in 2014 with information on OPT approvals and denials from fiscal year 2008-2013. Note that the counts here are of receipts, approvals, denials or revocations that happened in the fiscal year, regardless of when other activities surrounding that application occurred. For instance, if an application was approved in Fiscal Year 2009 and revoked in Fiscal Year 2010, the revocation would be counted in 2010 rather than 2009. Thus, the number of receipts for a given year need not equal the sum of the number of approvals and denials for that year. The data is collected through surveys of over 3,000 accredited U.S. higher education institutions, and does not rely on any privileged access to government data. Institutions not included in the survey (such as high schools that issue student visas, and non-accredited institutions that are SEVP-certified) may be omitted from the statistics. Since the 2006–2007 academic year, these surveys have included data on usage of the Optional Practical Training program. Since the Optional Practical Training program duration is a year for most people (though the STEM extension and cap gap allow for longer OPTs under some circumstances), the number of approvals in a given year should roughly match the number of students on Optional Practical Training. However, because of various mismatches such as that between the fiscal and academic year, and between the date of approval and the start date, and the fact that the Open Doors survey does not cover all SEVP-certified institutions, the numbers may not exactly match those from the GAO table. The data below summarizes both total OPT usage and the usage based on country of origin for the top countries of origin. More detailed data is available at the IIE website. OPT Demographic Statistics Global Geographic Statistics • Between 2004 and 2016, there were 441,400 OPT approvals from India and 313,500 from China. • California has the highest percentage of OPT workers, with 20.8%. Education Statistics • The University of Southern California was the biggest OPT participant between 2003 and 2017, with 30,720 approvals. • 70% of OPT participants in the U.S. graduated with a master's degree. • The most common field of study for OPT majors is computer science and business administration and management, both at 8.6%. == History ==

1947: Student practical training Since before Congress enacted the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA), the executive branch under every president from Harry S. Truman onward has interpreted enduring provisions of the immigration laws to permit foreign visitors on student visas to complement their classroom studies with a limited period of postcoursework Optional Practical Training (OPT). A 1947 rule allowed foreign students "admitted temporarily to the United States … for the purpose of pursuing a definite course of study" to remain here for up to eighteen months following completion of coursework for "employment for practical training" as required or recommended by their school "for a six-month period subject to extension for not over two additional six-month periods". The Immigration and Naturalization Service created the program without prior public comment or notice. The 1990 Immigration Act originally created a time-limited employment pilot program for foreign students on visas. 2008: Introduction of the STEM OPT Extension The STEM extension was announced in an interim rule by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on April 2, 2008, published in the Federal Register issue of Tuesday, April 8, 2008. This policy changes shaped foreign students' decision to decide and obtain a STEM degree. In addition, foreign students were 18% more likely to have a STEM field degree following the 2008 policy change. In addition, the likelihood that a foreign student completes a STEM master's degree rose 33%. 2008: Challenge from Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) The OPT STEM extension announced in April 2008 was challenged in a lawsuit by the Immigration Reform Law Institute filed on May 29, 2008. The organization filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of various organizations and individuals challenging the validity of the 17-month OPT extension. On August 5, 2008, the lawsuit was rejected by a New Jersey district court judge. 2014: Obama Administration Changes A November 20, 2014 memo by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Charles Johnson outlining proposed executive action on immigration endorsed by President Barack Obama included some suggested changes to the OPT program. The proposals were discussed and critiqued in National Law Review. 2014: Challenge in November In August 2015, a US federal court gave the green light to a lawsuit challenging the 17-month OPT STEM extension, filed by the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers and three IT workers who claimed that the OPT STEM extension had created unfair low-wage competition that had materially hurt them. On August 12, 2015, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated the 2008 OPT Regulations but stayed the order until February 12, 2016, to allow DHS to provide a transition. The court therefore gave the federal government a deadline and an extension to formulate new rules. 2016: New STEM OPT Extension Rule The proposed rules suggested in the November 20, 2014 memo by DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson were finalized by DHS on March 9, 2016, to be effective May 10, 2016, just in time to address the November 2014 court challenge to the original STEM extension. USCIS expanded the STEM extension to two years. The agency did add a requirement that the employer attest to the non-displacement of U.S. workers, to address concerns raised in the STEM extension lawsuit challenge. 2020: Trump Administration OPT Limitation Proposal In April and May 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in unemployment due to the pandemic and associated government lockdowns, the administration of President Donald Trump was reported to be exploring new restrictions on OPT. However, the Trump administration ultimately left out OPT from his executive actions due to White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination Chris Liddell rallying universities against any restrictions on the program. 2025: Second Trump Administration and Site Visits Although DHS has possessed the authority to conduct site visits at the locations of employers training F-1 students on STEM OPT extensions (years 2 and 3 of OPT) since 2016, enforcement was initially limited. Upon the start of the second Trump administration in 2025, however, the frequency and scope of these site visits experienced a sharp ramp-up, including surprise home visits for graduates working remotely. == Criticism ==

Cheap Labor Labor experts have noted that employers like to hire foreign workers on OPT because employers get a discount. Students working with OPT authorization do not pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. For employers, hiring an OPT worker amounts to a 15.3% discount per student compared to an American citizen or permanent resident. Employers receive another discount because these companies do not have to provide health insurance as OPT workers are required to maintain private health insurance. Georgetown University researchers found OPT workers are paid 41.7 percent less than equivalent U.S. workers They found that in general, the student-to-temporary work visa pathway reduced earnings until these foreign students became legal permanent residents. Displacing American College Graduates Critics of the Optional Practical Training program allege that the program allows for U.S companies to prefer international students who studied in United States over American college graduates. In 2019, The Department of Labor sued Oracle Corporation favored foreign Asian graduates of U.S. colleges over American graduates. Howard University Professor of Public Policy Ron Hira commented on the government lawsuit "Oracle is not alone in favoring foreign workers who can be paid less because they're tied to a company by their visa or work permit. Industry's key argument for cheaper H-1B and OPT guest workers is that there's a shortage of U.S. talent. That argument completely falls apart in the face of these findings. In fact, the industry is using the visa programs for cheaper guest workers, undercutting U.S. workers, damaging the U.S. talent pipeline, and exacerbating its woeful record on workforce diversity." Lack of Congressional Authorization Policy scholars and detractors of OPT have noted that Congress never provided F-1 visa foreign students the ability to work besides a three-year pilot program included in the Immigration Act of 1990 that ended. Internal Brain Drain Journalists have pointed out that foreign STEM OPT recipients drive American STEM graduates and future STEM students away from industry through wage deflation and competition for entry-level jobs. National Security Risk & Theft Lawmakers have expressed concerns that vulnerabilities in the work authorization program expose the United States to foreign theft of intellectual property, especially from China. Fraud There are concerns about fraud with the program. An investigation by NBC News found that fake companies were exploiting the foreign student guestworker program. These companies created fraudulent employment documents so foreign graduates could stay in the United States illegally. Companies such as Tellon Trading and Findream, employing 1,200 OPT graduates total in 2017, were the only companies on paper. Another Employer Guest Worker Program Labor experts have noted how the optional practical training is primarily a guestworker program for employers, not an educational one. These researchers say that OPT should be understood and categorized along with other guest worker programs such as the H-1B visa program. == Support of the OPT program ==

Economic Growth and Job Creation Proponents of the Optional Practical Training program highlight its strong positive effect on the U.S. economy and job market. Research shows that foreign-born workers, including those on OPT, create jobs for native-born workers overall instead of displacing them. A 2018 forecasting model from the Business Roundtable found that cutting the OPT program by 60% would lead to a 0.25% decline in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product by 2028 and a total loss of 443,000 jobs, with 255,000 of those jobs held by native-born U.S. workers. Fostering Innovation and Patent Creation Economists and policy scholars argue that the OPT program drives American innovation, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. A 2019 report by the Niskanen Center found that more OPT participants in a region leads to increased innovation, measured by the number of patents issued. Specifically, every 10 additional OPT participants in a metropolitan area is associated with five more patents. Immigrant graduates with science and engineering degrees have historically patented at twice the rate of the average American, and the share of U.S. patents held by immigrants rose from 9% in 1975 to 28% in 2015. A 10% increase in international graduate students is linked with a 4.5% rise in patent applications. In fact, the study showed that a higher number of foreign students approved for OPT, compared to U.S. workers, is linked to a lower unemployment rate among U.S. STEM workers. Without the OPT program, the U.S. risks losing top international students to other countries with better post-graduation work policies, like Canada and Australia. Bipartisan and Industry Support The OPT program has strong support from both the technology industry and lawmakers from both parties. Major tech companies, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, are among the top employers of OPT participants and depend on the program to find skilled international graduates. In March 2026, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Keep Innovators in America Act. This bill aims to establish the OPT program in law to provide long-term certainty for students, universities, and employers, recognizing the program's economic significance. Pathway to High-Skilled Immigration Economists point out that OPT is a vital pathway for the high-skilled workforce in the United States. It serves as a primary step toward the H-1B visa; about 34% of first-time H-1B visa recipients transition from student visas via the OPT route. Research shows that foreign graduates not only start their own businesses but also enable native-born Americans to create their own; over a third of additional startups linked to foreign graduates are founded by native-born Americans. When the OPT program was expanded in the past, patenting in U.S. metropolitan areas significantly affected by the expansion increased compared to those with little impact, suggesting that ending OPT would harm American innovation in the long run. ==References==