If enacted, the proposal would effectively bar thousands of international students from participating in OPT, having a potentially devastating impact on inbound international mobility to US universities.
Exclusively broken yesterday by the Washington Post, news of the plans came through a person familiar with the matter speaking under anonymity.
The plans are purportedly still under discussion, and a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said “no policies should be considered final until formally announced”, but did not deny it was under consideration.
“Our immigration system is being reformed to serve American citizens, American workers, and American families and to preserve our national identity – not to rapidly import foreigners who take American jobs, commit crimes, steal our intellectual property and engage in corporate espionage, and erode our cultural and social fabric,” they told The PIE News.
In its current form, OPT offers international students an opportunity to work in the US for 12 months. Those taking STEM OPT have the option to extend their work period by a further two years.
International students remain on their F-1 visa for the duration of the program, though following the administration’s final rule ending duration of status, from September they will be required to file for an extension of stay with DHS.
The program has been central to America’s appeal as the world’s largest host country of international students, with nearly 295,000 total OPT participants in 2024/25 according to the latest data from IIE.
The workstream’s growing popularity has been the driver of rising international student levels in recent years, with OPT participants counted in F-1 student totals.
In 2024/25, OPT saw a continued increase of 21% – just below the previous year’s growth rate and largely driven by Indian students who made up just under half (49%) of all OPT participants.
The university sector has long been anticipating a change to the post-graduation work program, with repeated calls from within government for its abolition, with the head of ICE recently branding the program a “magnet for fraud”.
It is understood that DHS is still planning a broad overhaul of OPT, with new regulations expected this fall.
Notably, if the rumoured $100,000 fee is enacted, it remains unclear whether the charge would be burdened by international students themselves or prospective universities and employers.
At DHS we are always having conversations about how to use all tools in our arsenal to protect the integrity of our legal immigration system
DHS
Last year, Trump’s shock announcement of a $100,000 fee on H-1B skilled worker visas was met with fierce criticism from US universities and prospective employers particularly in Silicon Valley.
It was later clarified that international students would be exempted from the charge, and last week a federal appeals court blocked the administration’s bid to start collecting the new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas.
If attached to OPT, the fee could drastically worsen the declining flow of international students to the US, with six in ten US colleges reporting a fall in international student applications following 18 months of policy turbulence and visa challenges during Trump’s second administration.
The workstream is commonly cited as one of the primary reasons for students choosing to study in the US, with over half of current postgraduate students indicating they wouldn’t have enrolled at an American university had OPT been rescinded, a recent NAFSA study found.
With more focus than ever on post-graduation work opportunities and questions about the ROI of a US degree, ill Colvin SVP global solutions at Shorelight described OPT as “the infrastructure for American success”.
I can’t imagine a world where we compete without OPT,” he said, speaking at a major industry conference earlier this year.
