On October 8, DHS published a proposed rule that would require the school — not the F-1 student — to pay a fee for every OPT recommendation: $70,000 for the first one and $30,000 for each one after that.
In short
- The $70,000 fee for a first OPT recommendation and $30,000 for each subsequent one, including STEM OPT, is paid by the school, not the student.
- The rule is still just a proposal: comments are open until roughly November 9, followed by a mandatory 60-day wait — it cannot take effect before early 2027.
- Schools are allowed to pass the fee on to F-1 students, to all students at the institution, or to employers who hire OPT graduates.
- The 90-day filing windows for OPT and STEM OPT extensions are unchanged — filing too early still results in denial.
- Eligibility criteria for OPT and STEM OPT, self-employment rules, and CPT are not affected by this rule.
What DHS proposed on October 8
On October 8, DHS published a proposed rule affecting the F-1 OPT program: it introduces a fee that must be paid before a university’s international office (the DSO) can recommend a student for OPT. The stated purpose of the fee, according to the agency, is to make DSOs more selective — so international offices stop recommending nearly every student for OPT by default and instead apply stricter judgment.
This is not yet law — it is a proposed rule (NPRM). It is open for public comment for about 30 days, and only after that comment period closes can the rule be finalized. Even once the final text is published, the rule cannot take effect for at least 60 days. The comment period is set to close around November 9, and given the mandatory 60-day wait after final publication, the rule could not start applying before early 2027 at the very earliest.
When the rule could take effect
From the proposal’s publication to a possible effective date, there are at least two waiting periods.
- Public comment periodabout 30 dayscloses around November 9
- Mandatory wait after final publication60 daysrequired by law
- Earliest possible effective dateearly 2027
Who pays and how much: $70,000 and $30,000
The fee is paid by the school, not the student: before a DSO can enter a recommendation into SEVIS, the institution must first pay a fixed amount — without that payment, the I-20 cannot be endorsed and no work authorization application can be filed. Until the fee is paid, the recommendation simply does not go through in the system.
Until the fee is paid, the recommendation simply does not go through in the system.
The amount depends on which recommendation it is for that student:
| Stage | Amount |
|---|---|
| First OPT recommendation | $70,000 |
| Each subsequent recommendation, including STEM OPT | $30,000 |
If a student ultimately does not receive an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) for OPT, the school may request a refund of the fee it paid, but each request is decided individually — the proposed rule does not provide for an automatic refund.
How much a school pays per OPT recommendation
The fee amount depends on whether it is the first recommendation or a later one.
- First OPT recommendation$70,000
- Each subsequent recommendation, including STEM OPT$30,000
If a student does not receive an EAD, the school may request a refund of the fee, but the proposed rule does not provide for an automatic refund — each case is decided individually.
Can schools pass the fee on to students and employers
Formally, the school pays the fee, but the proposed rule explicitly allows passing those costs along: to F-1 students themselves, to all students at the institution regardless of status, or to the employers who hire OPT graduates. In other words, the school can effectively recoup its costs by choosing any one of these options or some combination of them.
In practice, this leaves institutions with two main paths. One is to raise tuition to cover the new fee through overall charges. The other is to shrink the number of students a DSO recommends for OPT by tightening internal selection criteria. The proposed rule itself names this as one of its goals: it is designed to push DSOs to become more selective and stop recommending nearly every applicant for OPT.
it is designed to push DSOs to become more selective and stop recommending nearly every applicant for OPT
The rule explicitly allows a school to pass the fee on to F-1 students, to all students, or to employers — meaning the institution itself may not be the one who ultimately pays.
Filing windows for OPT and STEM OPT the rule does not change
The new rule does not touch the procedural filing windows:
- An OPT application can be filed no earlier than 90 days before the program end date.
- A STEM OPT extension application can be filed no earlier than 90 days before the initial OPT EAD expires.
- Filing before that window leads to denial: an application submitted too early will be rejected.
Because the filing windows remain unchanged while the new fee has not yet taken effect, a student who is already eligible to file for OPT or a STEM OPT extension may benefit from doing so now, before the rule becomes effective. But there is no shortcut around the 90-day window — filing earlier than that does not speed anything up, it simply results in a denial.
If you are already eligible, it may be worth filing for OPT or a STEM OPT extension before the new fee takes effect — but strictly within the 90-day filing window.
What the rule leaves unanswered
The proposed rule does not address the case of a student who is already on OPT and, after the rule takes effect, files for a STEM OPT extension: the DSO recommendation for the initial OPT was entered under the old rules, while the extension application would be filed under the new ones. It is unclear which fee the school would owe in that situation — $70,000 as the first payment under the new rule, or $30,000, since this is technically the student’s second period of OPT.
The text of the proposed rule does not answer this question, and one recommendation is to flag this gap in an official public comment on the rule. How the agency ultimately resolves this will only become clear if and when the rule takes effect and is applied in practice.
Will the rule be challenged in court
The rule will likely face lawsuits even before it takes effect — attorneys expect challenges aimed at blocking its application to schools. One likely argument: the fee amounts to an unauthorized tax that the agency imposed without proper authority. This argument closely tracks the one made in the litigation over the $100,000 H-1B fee, where courts have already sided with plaintiffs and blocked the government from collecting it.
A second likely argument concerns a violation of rulemaking procedure under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). If the rule was adopted without following the required process, a court could strike it down on that basis regardless of the merits of the fee itself.
As of this writing, no lawsuit over this rule has been filed yet, so its chances in court cannot be assessed in advance — there are only grounds to expect that litigation will delay the rule from taking effect.
Attorneys expect lawsuits modeled on the $100,000 H-1B fee case: arguments include an unauthorized tax and a violation of rulemaking procedure under the APA.
What the rule does not change: eligibility, CPT, and other OPT categories
The rule does not change eligibility criteria for OPT or STEM OPT — this directly answers the question raised most often after the proposal was published. Self-employment under OPT is not being eliminated, and other OPT categories are not being eliminated either: the rule does not touch eligibility requirements at all. It is also explicitly stated that the proposal does not affect CPT — the rule’s text says so directly, since it is focused exclusively on F-1 OPT.
The stated reason for introducing the fee is to protect U.S. workers and prevent fraud, including the use of shell employers that hire OPT students to avoid FICA taxes. Another stated goal is to align OPT with employment-based programs like H-1B, where the employer always pays the fee.
Forbes cites an estimate that OPT participation could drop by roughly 56% — but this is a projection modeled on the effect of the already-implemented $100,000 H-1B fee, not a confirmed outcome of this specific rule.
OPT participation could drop by roughly 56%
Frequently asked questions
If a student is already on OPT and files for a STEM OPT extension after the rule takes effect, would the school owe $70,000 or $30,000?
The proposed rule does not directly answer this question: the recommendation for the initial OPT was entered under the old rules, while the STEM OPT extension application would be filed under the new ones, so it is unclear whether this counts as the first $70,000 payment or the second $30,000 one. One recommendation is to flag this gap in an official public comment on the rule — how the agency resolves it in practice will only become clear once the rule takes effect.
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Reader experience is useful, but it is not advice: check the rules on the official site.
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