By Hasan Legal Admin · October 13, 2026
DHS has proposed a $70,000 fee tied to Optional Practical Training. As reported, a school would have to pay the fee before recommending a student for OPT, though it could pass the cost on to the student or to the employer. The reporting also says the proposal does not change current work authorization. That is close to everything confirmed so far. Here is what the proposal would do, what hasn't been published or reported yet, why it matters to F-1 students and the employers who hire them, and what to do while the details are still unknown.
DHS has proposed a $70,000 fee tied to Optional Practical Training. As reported, a school would have to pay the fee before recommending a student for OPT, though it could pass the cost on to the student or to the employer. The reporting also says the proposal does not change current work authorization.
That is close to everything confirmed so far. Here is what the proposal would do, what hasn't been published or reported yet, why it matters to F-1 students and the employers who hire them, and what to do while the details are still unknown.
OPT is the main bridge between an F-1 degree and a U.S. career, so any proposal that attaches a large dollar figure to it deserves attention. It also deserves restraint. A proposal is not a rule, and an early summary is not the proposal itself.
Nothing in that summary says the fee is in effect, and a proposal generally has to go through public comment and a final rule before it becomes binding. Students with OPT or STEM OPT authorization today should read the last bullet as the one that matters most for now: according to the reporting, the proposal does not alter work authorization that has already been granted.
The summary we have is only a few sentences long. These details were not available to us at the time of writing, and they will determine how much this proposal actually matters:
Read the proposed rule itself, once it is available on the Federal Register, before relying on anything in this article.
As background, OPT lets F-1 students work in a field related to their degree, generally for up to 12 months after completing their program, with a 24-month extension available for graduates of STEM-designated programs. Under current practice, the student's Designated School Official, or DSO, recommends OPT in SEVIS, the system that tracks F-1 status, and issues an updated Form I-20 reflecting that recommendation. The student then files Form I-765 with USCIS. A filing window generally opens up to 90 days before the program end date and closes 60 days after it, so students should confirm their own dates with their DSO.
The DSO recommendation is the step the reported proposal appears to target. That is a notable choice, because it places a payment obligation on the school at the moment it acts, rather than on the student at the moment of filing with USCIS.
A fee of this size, charged to schools, raises an immediate practical question: who ends up paying it? The summary says schools could pass the cost to students or employers. Here are the possibilities worth watching. These are not confirmed outcomes.
| Who might bear the cost | What it could look like | Open questions |
|---|---|---|
| The student | A school passes the fee through before issuing the OPT recommendation. | Whether a student could realistically pay it, and whether schools could require payment as a condition of recommending OPT. |
| The employer | A hiring company agrees to cover the fee for a student it wants to employ on OPT. | Whether employers would do so, and whether this would favor larger firms over startups and smaller employers. |
| The school | An institution absorbs the fee, restructures how it recommends OPT, or limits the number of recommendations. | The financial strain on smaller or less-resourced schools, and whether some would stop recommending OPT altogether. |
The size of the figure is the story. It is many times larger than current USCIS filing fees for work authorization, and the difference is large enough that how the cost is allocated would shape who can realistically use OPT at all.
This proposal does not stand alone. It arrives alongside several other cost-related and status-related proposals we have covered this fall, each touching a different stage of the same pathway from student status to a work visa.
| Stage | Related development | Status |
|---|---|---|
| F-1 student work authorization | Tighter SEVP guidance on Curricular Practical Training, with some schools pausing programs | Reported; details still emerging |
| Post-graduation work (OPT) | The $70,000 fee proposal discussed here | Proposed; not confirmed in effect |
| Employer sponsorship (H-1B) | A proposed $103,265 fee on cap-subject petitions, and a separate $100,000 payment that has been in litigation | Proposed / disputed; verify current status |
| After a job ends | A proposal to eliminate the 60-day grace period | Proposed; not in effect |
Taken together, these are proposals aimed at the cost and the duration of staying in the United States on a temporary status. We have written about each separately: the CPT guidance, the $103,265 H-1B fee proposal, the $100,000 payment litigation, and the grace period proposal. None of them is a reason to panic. All of them are reasons to plan earlier than you otherwise would.
If your hiring pipeline relies on OPT and STEM OPT graduates, this proposal could eventually raise the cost of bringing a student into your workforce if schools pass the fee on to employers. It could also shrink the pool of students who are able to use OPT at all. Neither effect is confirmed. It is reasonable to ask now whether your hiring budget and your offer timelines can accommodate an additional, uncertain cost, and to track how your partner universities respond.
OPT and H-1B both depend on someone else: a school to recommend, and an employer to sponsor. For F-1 graduates with strong research, technical, or clinical records, an employer-independent route may be worth evaluating alongside OPT rather than only after it. EB-2 NIW, EB-1A, and O-1 do not run through a school recommendation or a lottery, and for qualifying candidates they can be built in parallel with the status you hold now. They are not right for everyone, and strength of record matters, but a proposal like this is a good prompt to find out where you stand.
If you are an F-1 student or recent graduate trying to plan around OPT, STEM OPT, and a possible H-1B, we can review your status, your timeline, and whether a self-petition under EB-2 NIW, EB-1A, or O-1 could give you a path that does not depend on a school or employer fee.
This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It is based on a short news summary of a proposal that has not been confirmed in effect; the proposed rule's text, scope, effective date, and legal basis were not available at the time of writing and should be verified on the Federal Register before anyone relies on this article. OPT timing rules and filing windows vary by individual circumstances, so confirm yours with your Designated School Official. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Consult a licensed immigration attorney about your specific circumstances.