OPT Fee Proposal: What the $70,000 School Fee Would Mean and How to Comment by November 9

The proposal creates two flat charges in a new paragraph, 8 CFR 214.13(i). The initial fee of $70,000 is one-time and applies the first time a school recommends a student for any kind of OPT, whether pre-completion (during studies) or post-completion (after graduation). The subsequent fee of $30,000 applies to every later OPT recommendation for a student whose initial fee was already paid.

The trigger is the school’s recommendation, not the job. Changing employers would not cost anything extra. Starting a new OPT period would.

The pre-completion line matters more than it looks. A student who does part-time pre-completion OPT and then post-completion OPT would cost the school $100,000 for the same 12-month allowance that costs $70,000 if used all after graduation. DHS itself predicts schools and students will shift to post-completion OPT to avoid the second charge.

That last row is not in the proposed text. DHS says it considered charging the full $70,000 again whenever a student moves to a higher degree level and starts a new OPT period, and it “especially encourages” public input on that idea. If you have a view on it, say so in your comment, because the final rule can adopt it.

The proposal covers only OPT under 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii). It does not set a fee for Curricular Practical Training (CPT), and it does not change the SEVIS I-901 fee students already pay, apart from renaming it the “SEVIS fee” in the regulation text.

Under the proposed 8 CFR 214.2(f)(11), the school must pay before the DSO enters the recommendation in SEVIS. The DSO would then confirm payment, issue the student a new Form I-20 showing the recommendation and the fee payment information, and only then could the student file Form I-765 with USCIS. USCIS would not approve the work permit if the fee was never paid or was paid after the recommendation went in.

Refunds would be discretionary. A school could ask SEVP for its money back only if the student never received the work permit tied to that payment, and only after the DSO removes the recommendation from SEVIS. Once the employment authorization document is issued, the fee is not refundable “under any circumstances,” and SEVP’s refund decisions could not be appealed.

The rule does not tell schools how to raise the money. DHS writes that schools “may pass the financial obligation of this proposed fee onto F-1 nonimmigrant students, all students, or employers,” and it treats that as a feature: a higher price would, in its view, discourage people who want OPT mainly to work.

A proposed rule cannot charge anyone. DHS has to review the comments, answer the significant ones in writing, and publish a final rule. The proposal says the final rule would take effect 60 days after it is published, and the fee would apply to DSO recommendations dated on or after that effective date. Recommendations made before then would not be charged.

There is no deadline for when DHS must finalize, and final rules often draw lawsuits. The fee also borrows its logic from the H-1B program: DHS says it chose a figure “comparable to the fee for H-1B visas” so that OPT is not used to avoid H-1B costs. That $100,000 H-1B charge has its own court history, covered in U.S. Extends H-1B $100,000 Entry Rule Until September 21, 2027.

DHS will only consider comments filed through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Emails, letters to DHS, hand deliveries and USB drives are not counted as comments and get no response. The process takes about ten minutes once your text is ready.

Everything you submit is published in the docket and searchable by name. Leave out your SEVIS ID, passport number, home address and anything else you would not post publicly. You can describe your situation (for example, “second-year master’s student in electrical engineering planning STEM OPT”) without identifying yourself.

Comments on the paperwork burden, such as how long schools would spend recording fee payments, have a later deadline of December 7, 2026, and must include the OMB control number. Most readers only need the November 9 deadline.

Rulemaking is not a vote. Ten thousand identical messages count as one argument. What forces a response is a specific, supported point, because the agency must address significant comments in the final rule and a court can later ask whether it did. DHS’s own instructions say the most helpful comments reference a specific part of the rule, explain the change they want, and include data or legal authority.

The proposal leans heavily on fraud findings, including Homeland Security Investigations site visits to STEM OPT employers. Comments that address that evidence directly, either agreeing and suggesting tighter targeting or disputing it with numbers, carry more weight than general statements. Background on ICE’s earlier OPT enforcement push is in ICE Targets OPT Fraud, Putting F-1 Students and Employers on Alert.