DHS Proposes a $70,000 OPT Fee: What It Means If You're Job Searching on F-1 Status

The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a new fee structure for Optional Practical Training that would charge a school $70,000 for a student's first OPT recommendation and $30,000 for every one after that, including the STEM OPT extension. The rule isn't final, and nothing about current OPT procedures has changed yet. Here is exactly what was proposed, what is and isn't confirmed, and what it means if you're currently job searching or working on F-1 status. As always, this is factual reporting on a policy proposal, not legal or immigration advice — Growx does not provide either.

What DHS actually proposed, and when

DHS issued the proposed rule on October 8, 2026. Under the proposal, a SEVP-certified school would owe $70,000 the first time its Designated School Official recommends a student for OPT, whether that's pre-completion or post-completion OPT, and $30,000 for each later OPT recommendation for that same student, which includes a STEM OPT extension. The fee is owed by the school, not the student directly and not a specific employer, and it would be due before the DSO updates SEVIS and before the student files the Form I-765 application for an Employment Authorization Document. DHS has estimated the fees could generate somewhere between $8.4 billion and $16.5 billion a year, with a central estimate around $12.4 billion annually after the first year, according to Ogletree Deakins' summary of the proposal.

Two separate comment windows are running right now. The public comment period on the substance of the rule runs through November 9, 2026. A second, separate comment period tied to the Paperwork Reduction Act runs an additional 60 days from publication. DHS can revise the proposal in response to what it receives in either window, and nothing requires it to finalize the rule as written.

Who the fee actually falls on

Because the fee is billed to the school rather than the student or an employer, the proposal's most direct financial pressure sits with SEVP-certified colleges and universities, not with individual job seekers. But that doesn't mean students and employers are insulated from it. Schools facing a $70,000-per-student bill for a program that's historically been free for them to administer have an obvious incentive to pass some or all of that cost on to the student, to narrow which programs or students they recommend for OPT at all, or in some cases to scale back OPT participation altogether. None of that is hypothetical speculation about intent; it's the direct financial logic DHS's own cost estimate creates, and immigration attorneys tracking the proposal have flagged exactly this kind of downstream effect as the practical risk worth watching, separate from whatever DHS's stated policy rationale is.

Employers don't pay the fee directly under the proposal as written, but a smaller or more hesitant pool of OPT-eligible graduates would still affect them indirectly, by shrinking the number of candidates available through this pathway. For the specific audience that already deals with the OPT-to-H-1B pipeline, it's worth noting this proposal is legally distinct from the $100,000 H-1B fee litigation we've covered separately. They are two different proclamations and two different legal processes, currently moving on two different timelines, and a ruling or change on one doesn't automatically carry over to the other.

What this means if you're job searching on OPT or F-1 status right now

If your OPT or STEM OPT timeline is already in motion, the honest, current answer is: proceed exactly as you were. The fee proposal doesn't change your filing deadlines, your 90-day unemployment clock, or anything else about the process you're already in. What has changed is the amount of uncertainty floating around the topic, and that's worth being prepared to discuss calmly rather than either dismissing it or assuming the worst.

A few practical things worth doing in the next few weeks regardless of how the rule ultimately shakes out. First, if your school's international student office sends guidance about this proposal, read it directly rather than relying on secondhand summaries from social media or forums, since the details (what's proposed vs. what's final, who actually pays) get flattened or distorted quickly as this kind of news spreads. Second, if you're in active interviews and the topic of your status comes up, you can accurately say that current OPT procedures are unchanged, that a fee has been proposed but isn't final, and that you're tracking it — that's a more credible answer than guessing at numbers or outcomes that haven't been decided. Third, keep your job search moving on its normal timeline. A proposed rule with a November 9 comment deadline and a 60-day-after-finalization effective date, if it's finalized at all, isn't a reason to pause applications or assume your specific plans are already affected.

What we don't know yet

DHS could finalize the rule largely as proposed, revise the dollar figures or the fee structure after reviewing comments, or decline to finalize it at all. There's also no public indication yet of how schools collectively plan to respond if some version of the fee goes into effect — whether that means absorbing the cost, passing it to students, or scaling back which students they recommend. Anyone telling you with confidence exactly how this resolves, in either direction, is speculating past what's actually been published. The most reliable approach is to track DHS's own published materials and your school's official guidance as this moves through the comment period, rather than secondhand claims about what it "really means."

Whatever happens with this specific proposal, the fundamentals of a strong OPT or H-1B-track job search don't change: a resume that passes ATS screening cleanly, a LinkedIn profile recruiters can actually find, and the ability to talk about your work authorization status plainly and accurately when it comes up. That's the part of the process we help candidates on OPT and H-1B status with directly through our resume, LinkedIn, and interview preparation services, regardless of which way policy proposals like this one ultimately land.