A forthcoming regulation from the Trump administration is expected to consider ending or restricting the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for international students.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2025/11/11/new-immigration-rule-will-end-or-restrict-student-practical-training/
The immigration regulation, listed on the public management agenda, may be issued before the end of this year or in the first half of 2026. This will be the latest measure critics say aims to prevent international students from coming to the United States and working after graduation. This regulation contradicts the stance that Donald Trump expressed in 2024 when he stated on a podcast that he wanted all international students to stay and work in the U.S.
The Optional Practical Training program allows international students to work for 12 months in their field of study before or after completing their course requirements. STEM OPT enables students to gain practical experience through an additional 24 months of work (beyond OPT) in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. For many immigration opponents, ending OPT and STEM OPT mainly aims to prevent international students from obtaining H-1B visas. The Bush administration supported granting an additional 24 months of STEM OPT to international students to improve their chances in the annual H-1B lottery program.
According to the Institute of International Education, 242,782 international students participated in OPT and STEM OPT during the 2023/24 academic year. DHS reported, “There are 194,554 OPT students who have completed or are in the process of completing, with work authorization documents and reporting employment to an employer in 2024… with 165,524 international students participating in STEM OPT in 2024.” That figure is lower than the total number of SEVIS records listed by DHS with “authorized participation” in OPT and STEM OPT in 2024, which may be because not all authorized individuals started OPT within that year. DHS data covers the entire calendar year, while IIE uses a snapshot taken during the academic year, and does not include OPT before completion, both of which could help explain the different data sets.
The upcoming regulation on Optional Practical Training for Immigration
A regulation included in DHS’s management agenda will change the Optional Practical Training. “The proposed regulation will better align practical training with the goals and purposes of the program, while providing clearer information to the public,” according to the regulation summary. “The proposed regulation will amend current regulations to address issues of fraud and national security, protect American workers from being replaced by foreigners, and strengthen the oversight capacity of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.” Although the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is responsible for issuing this regulation, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is considered the driving force behind it.
The Trump administration proposed measures that educators warn will make the United States less attractive as a destination for students pursuing academic programs. In August, DHS proposed a regulation to restrict international students by replacing the current “duration of status” policy with fixed enrollment periods, which could make it difficult for students to complete programs longer than four years. In September, Trump administration officials proposed a new immigration regulation to change the H-1B selection process, prioritizing higher-level applicants over new international students. An upcoming regulation may also restrict H-1B visa issuance conditions for all foreign nationals.
Option 1 regarding Immigration: Remove the Optional Practical Training Program or Make it Impossible to Implement
Efren Hernandez, who until recently was a senior policy analyst at USCIS and is now the founder of EH3 Immigration Consulting, believes that the Optional Practical Training Program is under threat. “If they can find a way to eliminate it, they will,” Hernandez said in an interview.
The Trump administration may seek to completely eliminate OPT and STEM OPT from current regulations. This move would face strong opposition and legal challenges from the education and business communities. Critics of OPT and STEM OPT argue that these programs could be eliminated because they are not explicitly permitted by law.
The Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, clearly stated during the confirmation hearing that he hopes to end the participation of international students in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) or STEM OPT program after graduating from U.S. universities. “I think the way the OPT program has been handled over the past four years, with the support of some rulings from the D.C. District Court, has really been an issue of misapplying the law,” Edlow said. “What I fundamentally want to see is a managed and regulated program that allows us to eliminate the ability to grant work permits to F-1 students after their period of study.” (Emphasized further.)
There is now a less commonly used program, the Practical Training Program within the Study Program, which allows international students to work while studying. If Edlow uses his position in the government to eliminate the work authorization for F-1 students after completing their studies, it would effectively eliminate OPT and STEM OPT. Advocates of OPT and STEM OPT argue that all countries competing with the U.S. for talent allow international students to work after graduation.
Despite Edlow’s opposition, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in a 2-1 ruling in October 2022, ruled that the Department of Homeland Security’s allowance of international students to work under the OPT and STEM OPT programs is lawful.
Stephen Miller, the chief architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, has long opposed international students working in the United States. While working for Senator Jeff Sessions (Republican-Always), Miller helped draft legislation to end OPT and require international students to leave the U.S. for a decade (for undergraduate and master’s students) before they could work under an H-1B visa. Those with a Ph.D. would need to accumulate two years of work experience outside the U.S. before applying for an H-1B visa.
“Edlow will definitely cooperate with Miller to eliminate the OPT system,” said Jon Wasden of Wasden Law in an interview.
Option 2: Maintain OPT with New Restrictions
If the Trump administration does not completely eliminate OPT and STEM OPT, another option is to impose new restrictions on this program. Critics argue that because employers do not have to pay Social Security taxes for students participating in OPT and STEM OPT, students have an advantage over American workers. There is little evidence to suggest that employers hire individuals under OPT for jobs lasting only 12 months to save on Social Security taxes. However, even supporters of the Optional Practical Training program want to remove this issue from the public debate.
The Human Dignity Act, sponsored by Representative Maria Elvira Salazar (Republican-FL), will impose Social Security taxes on the wages of students participating in Optional Practical Training. The Trump administration seemed unlikely to require employers to pay Social Security taxes for individuals participating in OPT through regulation.
Another approach that the Trump administration could take is to impose new legal, wage, or administrative burdens on employers of students participating in OPT and STEM OPT. “One of the real attractions of OPT, or what is called regular OPT, is that employers can easily hire employees,” said Dan Berger of Green & Spiegel in an interview. “They just need to present a work permit and can work. The administrative process is very simple.” He pointed out that OPT may only require volunteering with a minimum of 20 hours per week. “The real issue lies in training. It helps people receive practical training in their field, not necessarily in a job.”
Unlike OPT, STEM OPT requires a training plan, market-rate wages, E-Verify, and possibly site visits.
Analysts are also concerned that administrative officials may exploit the termination of “residency status” to make it difficult for students to transfer to the Optional Practical Training program. The proposed regulation would only allow students to stay in the United States for a fixed period, such as four years, and would require an extension to stay longer. If students complete their program of study when the fixed period expires, analysts wonder whether DHS will deny extension requests to pursue the Optional Practical Training program. Berger does not believe that the “residency status” regulation, as written, allows for the outright denial of the entire OPT program. However, he can envision the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) applying “extremely strict scrutiny” and denying many applications.
Negative impacts are expected on the economy and immigration
Economists believe that ending OPT and STEM OPT is harmful and counterproductive to U.S. innovation. “The clearest evidence is that international students graduating from U.S. universities significantly increase innovation,” according to economist Michael Clemens from George Mason University. “Most evidence suggests that immigration policies aimed at attracting international students to stay in the U.S. will serve the national interest. Ending OPT will have the opposite effect.” Clemens, Amy Nice, and Jeremy Neufeld’s research for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shows that ending OPT will harm U.S. productivity, slow economic growth, and cause the U.S. economy to lose output equivalent to that of an entire state, such as Utah or South Carolina.
Madeline Zavodny, a economics professor at the University of North Florida, reviewed nearly a decade of data on Optional Practical Training and concluded: “The results show that the OPT program does not reduce employment opportunities for American workers in STEM fields.” A study by the National Foundation for American Policy indicates: “The number of international students approved to participate in OPT exceeds the number of American workers, related to lower unemployment rates among those American workers.”
Ending OPT and STEM OPT will reduce international students’ ability to come to the U.S. and work after graduation. This contradicts Donald Trump’s immigration policy intentions, who stated on a podcast in 2024: “What I want to do and will do is that when you graduate from college, I think you should automatically receive a green card as part of your degree so you can stay in this country.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2025/11/11/new-immigration-rule-will-end-or-restrict-student-practical-training/
