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DHS proposes a $70,000 fee for a student's first period of Optional Practical Training work and $30,000 for each one after, paid by the school.

3 min read

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The Department of Homeland Security proposes charging a school $70,000 the first time it recommends an F-1 student for Optional Practical Training work authorization, and $30,000 for every OPT period after that, before the recommendation can be filed. The fee would start only once a final rule takes effect and would not reach OPT already approved or already recommended. Comments on the proposal are due November 9, 2026.

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The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a fee for Optional Practical Training, the program that lets F-1 international students work in jobs tied to their field of study. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, published the proposal October 8.

The fee

The proposed rule sets two amounts per F-1 student: $70,000 the first time a school recommends the student for any type of OPT — before or after finishing a degree — and $30,000 for every OPT period after that, including a STEM extension. The fee would be charged per student, on each OPT recommendation, and the rule puts it on the SEVP-certified school rather than on the student's own application: a designated school official, or DSO, cannot enter an OPT recommendation in the federal tracking system until the school has paid, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would not grant the student's work authorization before payment. DHS says schools may pass the cost on to students or employers, and schools can also simply decline to recommend a student.

When it would start

The fee would not take effect with this proposal. It would begin only once DHS issues a final rule, which the proposal says would take effect 60 days after that final rule is published — a date not yet set. It would apply only to a DSO recommendation dated on or after that effective date. Students already approved for OPT, or already recommended before the effective date, would not owe it for that period, even for work continuing afterward; a later renewal filed after the effective date would be charged.

No exemption for small schools

DHS says it considered an exemption for small educational institutions and did not propose one. It estimates that 56 percent of the SEVP-certified institutions the rule would regulate are small entities — in its own figures, 1,389 of the 2,478 institutions that recommended at least one student for OPT between 2022 and 2024 — and says such an exemption could leave significant fraud vulnerabilities unaddressed because the majority of those institutions are small. The proposal names no exemption by student income, country or field of study.

What DHS says the purpose is

DHS states the fee is meant to curb fraud and abuse in OPT, protect U.S. workers, and discourage using OPT to bypass H-1B visa limits and fees — DHS says it set the amounts to align with H-1B fee levels. Collected fees would be deposited in the U.S. Treasury as a miscellaneous receipt; DHS says ICE would not maintain or use the money, and the fees are not earmarked for ICE's SEVP or for immigration enforcement.

How to comment

Comments on the proposal, docket ICEB-2026-0100, are due through the federal eRulemaking portal at regulations.gov by November 9, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. A separate, later deadline of December 7, 2026 applies only to comments on the rule's paperwork/information-collection burden.

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