OPT Fee Proposed Rule 2026: What the $70,000 Fee Means

One hundred thousand dollars. That is what an F-1 student on the standard STEM track would cost a school under the proposal: $70,000 for initial post-completion OPT, then $30,000 for the STEM OPT extension. DHS did the arithmetic itself. Its cost analysis describes "paying $100,000 for up to three years with STEM OPT eligibility" as the comparison schools would make.

For immigration attorneys, the bigger issue is the pipeline. The F-1 to OPT to H-1B route (and, later, to an EB-1A, EB-2 or EB-3 green card) runs through OPT for most foreign graduates who stay. If schools stop recommending students they will not pay for, the feeder for a large share of future employment-based cases narrows at the first step.

Schools Pay the OPT Fee Before the DSO Can Act

The proposed rule is short on regulatory text and long on preamble. The operative language is a new paragraph (i) in 8 CFR 214.13, the section that today covers only the SEVIS fee. Proposed 214.13(i)(1) reads: "An SEVP-certified educational institution must pay a one-time initial fee of $70,000 for each F-1 student the first time that the alien is recommended to participate in OPT under section 214.2(f)(10)(ii)."

So the legal obligation sits with the school. Students and employers show up in the text only as people the school might bill.

DHS is open about why. The preamble says the fee is meant to make schools "only issue OPT recommendations to those students for whom the school will pay the required fee," and that schools "would have greater equity and stake than employers in determining who participates in OPT due to their financial responsibilities." It then concedes the obvious: "DHS acknowledges that the schools may pass the financial obligation of this proposed fee onto F-1 nonimmigrant students, all students, or employers."

The rule sets no limits on how a school raises the money, beyond compliance with other law (DHS names foreign gift and contract reporting under 20 U.S.C. 1011f). An employer reimbursing a university, a tuition surcharge on international students, a general fee spread across the whole student body: all of these are left to the institution.

When the money changes hands

Payment comes before anything else. Under proposed 8 CFR 214.2(f)(11)(ii), the DSO must confirm that the school has paid and record the payment in SEVIS before entering the OPT recommendation. The student then receives a new Form I-20 showing the recommendation and the fee payment information, and only after that can the student file Form I-765 with USCIS. Proposed 214.2(f)(11)(iii) bars USCIS from granting employment authorization where the recommendation was issued before payment or where the school failed to pay.

Schools may batch payments (DHS mentions the start or end of an academic year), but a footnote adds that "the full amount must be paid prior to the issuance of the OPT recommendation."

The money does not go to ICE. DHS says the fees would be deposited in the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts under 31 U.S.C. 3302 because the statute does not let ICE keep them.

How Each OPT Period Is Priced

The two tiers sound simple. The edge cases are where client advice will get hard.

DHS spells out four rules in its discussion of changes:

1. The $70,000 fee applies to the first OPT of any type, "irrespective of whether it is pre-completion OPT or post-completion OPT."
2. The $30,000 fee applies to any later recommendation for a student who "has previously participated in OPT and has previously paid the initial OPT fee of $70,000."
3. STEM OPT is subsequent OPT. DHS lists "another pre-completion OPT, post-completion OPT, or STEM OPT extension" as all falling under the $30,000 tier.
4. Pre-completion plus post-completion costs $100,000 total, even with the same employer, because each needs its own DSO recommendation.

That last point changes practice. OPT outside the STEM extension is capped at 12 months combined, and the USCIS OPT page confirms pre-completion time is deducted from post-completion time. Splitting the 12 months would cost $30,000 more than taking it all after graduation. DHS predicts exactly that response: "DHS anticipates that institutions would encourage F-1 nonimmigrants to use only post-completion OPT to benefit from the fee differential."

The transition-year STEM student is the hard case

Here the text does not line up neatly. Take a student whose post-completion OPT began in 2026, before any final rule, and whose STEM extension recommendation would be dated after the effective date. Proposed 214.13(i)(2) makes the $30,000 tier available only if the student "has previously participated in OPT and paid the initial OPT fee of $70,000." This student never paid it. Proposed 214.13(i)(3) says schools must pay $70,000 "for each alien who receives a DSO recommendation for OPT that is dated on or after" the effective date.

DHS's own economic model reads it the same way: "To model the transition period in Year 1, DHS assumes all participants will pay $70,000, including those in STEM OPT."

The most natural reading, then, is that a STEM extension recommended in the first months after the effective date would carry the $70,000 fee, not $30,000. The preamble's reliance discussion points the same way, saying that if a student "submits a subsequent request for OPT on or after the effective date of the final rule, the fee provisions as outlined in this proposed rule will apply." The rule never says so in one plain sentence, though. That gap is a concrete thing to raise in a comment.

What the rule is silent on

Cap-gap is the biggest omission. The proposal mentions the cap-gap extension only in its regulatory history section. It does not say whether a cap-gap I-20 update counts as an OPT recommendation that triggers a fee. Since cap-gap is an automatic extension rather than a new DSO recommendation under 214.2(f)(10)(ii), our reading is that it would not, but the text does not answer the question and attorneys should not promise clients either result.

CPT is outside the rule. DHS writes that fraud in Curricular Practical Training has "increased along with the number of students engaging in CPT" and that it "will take additional actions as necessary." Expect CPT to come up later.

DHS also floated, and asked for comment on, a harsher version: charging the $70,000 initial fee again each time a student moves to a higher degree level, so a student with bachelor's OPT and then master's OPT would pay the initial fee twice.

DHS's Rationale: Fraud, U.S. Workers and the H-1B Cap

The preamble makes three arguments.

The first is fraud. DHS cites the 2020 conviction of a businesswoman who supplied false employment documents to at least 2,693 people, mostly F-1 students seeking OPT; the 2020 "Operation OPTical Illusion" arrests of 15 students; and a 2026 HSI review that DHS says found more than 10,000 F-1 students on OPT working for "highly suspect employers." It points to the growth of the program: 194,554 students reported OPT employment in 2024, up from 160,627 in 2023, while 165,524 students were on STEM OPT in 2024 according to ICE's SEVIS by the Numbers 2024 report as cited in the rule.

The second is labor market protection. DHS argues OPT has become "a channel for F-1 nonimmigrant students to circumvent employment visa caps," noting that STEM OPT participation in 2024 was nearly double the 65,000 regular H-1B cap. It also flags the FICA exemption for most F-1 students during their first five calendar years, which DHS says gives employers an incentive to hire OPT workers.

The third argument is the one that explains the dollar figure. DHS says it chose the initial fee "comparable to the fee for H-1B visas," citing Proclamation 10973, the $100,000 H-1B payment. The stated goal: the fee "is designed to closely align with the H-1B fees to reduce students and employers from using OPT to circumvent the H-1B visa program fees."

The preamble also carries a blunt warning: "DHS notes that without the fees proposed in this rule, it cannot operate OPT consistent with its focus on preventing fraud and may shut down the program entirely."

On legal authority, DHS relies on the "time and conditions" language in INA 214(a), 8 U.S.C. 1184(a), and on the D.C. Circuit's 2022 decision in Washington Alliance of Technology Workers v. DHS, 50 F.4th 164, which upheld the 2016 OPT rule under that authority. Whether the same authority supports a five-figure charge deposited in the general Treasury is a separate question the preamble does not squarely address.

What DHS says the fee would cost

DHS's regulatory impact analysis runs over 10 years and gives wide ranges, because it cannot predict how many schools will pay.

• Fees collected. Annual fee transfers of $8.4 billion to $16.5 billion, primary estimate $12.4 billion.
• 10-year transfers. $74.6 billion to $144.3 billion at a 3 percent discount rate (primary $109.4 billion).
• Annualized costs. $32 million to $8.2 billion, primary estimate $4.1 billion at 3 percent. Most of the upper range is lost OPT participation, which DHS values at the unpaid fees.
• School workload. First-year rule familiarization of $106.7 million, plus $11.3 million to $20.2 million a year in extra review and payment processing.

The participation assumptions say more than the totals do. In DHS's high scenario, schools keep recommending everyone: 194,554 OPT and 95,384 STEM OPT participants a year. In the low scenario, schools pay only for students who will qualify for the STEM extension, because "$70,000 for only a single year" compares badly with "$100,000 for up to three years." DHS uses 88,374 as its estimate of those STEM-track initial OPT students.

Put plainly, DHS's own low-end model assumes non-STEM OPT largely disappears.

The small-school numbers are just as direct. DHS found 2,478 institutions that recommended OPT at least once in 2022 to 2024. Of 1,389 small institutions in its analysis, 841 (60.5 percent) would see costs above 1 percent of revenue in the transition year, and 116 would face costs above 20 percent of revenue.

How the OPT Fee Fits With the H-1B Fee Proposals

Three different charges are in play, and clients mix them up. Each has a different status.

The $100,000 H-1B payment (Proclamation 10973). The President extended it on September 18, 2026 through September 21, 2027, according to Yale's Office of International Students and Scholars. It is not being collected. The District of Massachusetts vacated the implementing policies on June 8, 2026, which we covered in our analysis of the vacatur; the June stay fight that followed is in our First Circuit explainer. The First Circuit later denied the government's stay request on July 24, 2026, per the Yale notice. Then, on September 30, 2026, Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. in the Northern District of California blocked the USCIS and CBP guidance under both the original and extended proclamations in Global Nurse Force v. Trump, and the government appealed to the Ninth Circuit on October 9, as Bloomberg Law reported. The University of Colorado's international office summarized it on October 7: "The $100,000 fee is currently not required" (CU Boulder ISSS).

The $103,265 H-1B fee (FR 2026-17324). A separate proposed rule published August 25, 2026 would add a $103,265 fee, "payable at the time of filing, for all H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption" (Federal Register). The text says it would not apply to cap-exempt filings. Comments closed September 24, 2026. No final rule had been published as of October 20.

The OPT fee (FR 2026-20660). Proposed, comments open.

Stack the two proposals and the numbers get large fast. A STEM graduate who used both OPT tiers and then moved to a cap-subject H-1B would carry $100,000 in OPT fees and $103,265 in H-1B fees, $203,265 in total, if both rules were finalized as written. Neither has been.

What to Tell F-1 Students and Employers Now

Start with the date that controls everything: the date on the DSO's OPT recommendation. The fee would apply only to recommendations dated on or after an effective date that is at least 60 days after a final rule, and no final rule exists yet.

For F-1 students:

• Do not delay a recommendation you are already eligible for. Under USCIS filing windows, post-completion OPT can be filed up to 90 days before the degree is completed, after the DSO enters the recommendation. Spring 2027 graduates should ask their international office when it will issue recommendations.
• Students planning pre-completion OPT should weigh it again. Under the proposal it would turn a $70,000 obligation into $100,000 for the same 12 months.
• Current STEM OPT students are not affected for their current period. Students on initial post-completion OPT who will need a STEM extension recommendation in 2027 face the transition question above.
• Keep a clean status record. The fee sits on top of other 2026 changes: the duration of status final rule and the USCIS adjustment memo that names F-1 students as a higher-scrutiny group.

For employers:

• Inventory every OPT and STEM OPT worker by expected recommendation date. That list is your exposure if schools pass the fee through.
• Expect schools to ask employers to fund the fee. DHS anticipates it. Before agreeing, have counsel review the arrangement against existing STEM OPT training plan attestations on Form I-983.
• Budget for H-1B separately. The $100,000 payment is blocked today; the $103,265 fee is a proposal.

Attorneys advising universities should flag one practical problem DHS itself raises: DSOs may not have authority to approve $70,000 payments, so schools will need payment controls before the effective date.

Paths That Do Not Depend on OPT

For some clients, the answer is to stop routing through OPT. These options are real but narrow, and none fits every graduate.

O-1A. The O-1A classification covers people with extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business or athletics who can show "sustained national or international acclaim," per USCIS. There is no annual cap and no OPT prerequisite, and an F-1 student can change status to O-1 through an employer or agent petition. PhD graduates with publications, citations, peer review work and awards are the realistic candidates. Our O-1 petition guide covers the evidentiary criteria.

Cap-exempt H-1B. According to USCIS, H-1B workers "petitioned for or employed at an institution of higher education or its affiliated or related nonprofit entities, a nonprofit research organization, or a government research organization, are not subject to this numerical cap." Cap-exempt petitions also fall outside the proposed $103,265 fee as drafted. Postdocs and research staff positions are the usual fit. A later move to a cap-subject employer still requires a cap-subject petition.

Employment-based immigrant petitions. EB-1A and EB-2 NIW are self-petitions and do not need OPT. They do not give work authorization by themselves, though, so they work as a long-term plan alongside a nonimmigrant status, not a replacement for one.

How to Comment Before November 9

The comment period is 30 days, short for a rule OMB designated "economically significant." Comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Monday, November 9, 2026.

Procedure, from the rule's ADDRESSES and Public Participation sections:

1. Go to regulations.gov and comment on document ICEB-2026-0100-0001. The docket is ICEB-2026-0100, RIN 1653-AB01.
2. Include the docket number and name the specific section of the proposal each point addresses.
3. Give a reason and supporting data for every recommendation. DHS says the most useful comments cite "data, information, or authority."
4. Submit online only. DHS states that email, mail, hand delivery and digital media sent to the agency "will not be considered comments."
5. Remember comments are public. DHS posts them with any personal information included.
6. For the Paperwork Reduction Act information collection, comments are due December 7, 2026 and must include the OMB control number.

The Federal Register API listed 2,855 comments on the docket when checked on October 20.

What makes a comment count is specificity. These are the points where the proposal is thinnest or where DHS asked for input:

• The transition STEM student. Ask DHS to state whether a STEM extension recommended after the effective date, for a student whose initial OPT predates the rule, costs $30,000 or $70,000, and argue for the reliance interest of students who began OPT under the old rules.
• Cap-gap. Ask DHS to confirm in regulatory text that cap-gap extensions do not trigger a fee.
• Pre-completion OPT. DHS asked for data on how the $100,000 split would change pre-completion use. Universities and employers that run co-op or summer programs have that data.
• Small institutions. DHS's own figures show 116 small schools facing costs above 20 percent of revenue. Schools can document their own numbers.
• Refund terms. Refunds are discretionary and not appealable, and unavailable once an EAD issues, even if the job offer falls through the next day. Propose specific refund triggers.
• The re-charge alternative. DHS asked about charging $70,000 again at each degree level. Opposition with enrollment data belongs here.
• Legal authority. The fee goes to the general Treasury and DHS says it is set to deter, not to recover program costs. Commenters can address whether INA 214(a) supports a charge of this kind; the Massachusetts court found the $100,000 H-1B payment to be a tax Congress had not authorized, according to Klasko Immigration Law Partners.
• The 30-day period. Request an extension, with reasons.

The Bottom Line for Immigration Practices

Nothing changes today. A final rule would still need publication, then 60 days, before any fee attaches, and the fee would apply only to DSO recommendations dated after that. That is the planning window.

Use it to sort clients. Students who can get a recommendation before any effective date should. Students on the STEM track should know their transition exposure. Research-track students should be screened for O-1A and cap-exempt H-1B now, while there is time to build a record. Employers should know which of their OPT workers would be hit, and by how much. Weekly developments on this rule and the H-1B litigation are tracked in our immigration news digest for the week of October 19 and across the immigration policy hub.

If the F-1 pipeline narrows, the O-1A and EB-1A cases that follow will carry more weight for each client. Immigration Copilot reads the client's case file, places the verified evidence on the O-1 or EB-1A criteria it supports and drafts the petition with an exhibit cite on every sentence. Book a demo to see it on a case you know, or run a quick check with the free EB-1A case evaluator.