DHS Proposes $70,000 and $30,000 Fees for Optional Practical Training

On October 8, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), acting through DHS's Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register titled "Optional Practical Training Fees." The NPRM would require every SEVP-certified school to pay a new federal fee before it can recommend a student for Optional Practical Training in SEVIS: $70,000 for a student's first period of OPT, and $30,000 for every subsequent period, including the 24-month STEM OPT extension. For a STEM graduate who uses both, that is $100,000 in new federal fees tied to a single student's work authorization, on top of the standard Form I-765 filing fee. DHS had already signaled this was coming back in August, when it sent an Optional Practical Training fee proposal to OMB for review without releasing any regulatory text (see our earlier article on the companion $103,265 H-1B cap-subject petition fee proposal); the actual NPRM is now public.

What we know from the proposed rule

• RIN: 1653-AB01
• DHS Docket No.: ICEB-2026-0100
• Federal Register document number: 2026-20660
• Title: "Optional Practical Training Fees"
• Agency / Subagency: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) — not USCIS, even though the resulting employment authorization document is still adjudicated by USCIS on Form I-765
• Would amend: 8 CFR Part 214
• Action: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) — not a final rule; no fee is currently owed under this proposal
• Published: October 8, 2026
• Comment period: through November 9, 2026 for the substance of the rule; a separate Paperwork Reduction Act comment period on the information collection runs through December 7, 2026
• Proposed fee: $70,000 per F-1 student for the student's initial period of OPT; $30,000 per F-1 student for any subsequent period of OPT, including a STEM OPT extension
• Who pays: the SEVP-certified school — not the student directly, and not the employer — due before the Designated School Official (DSO) recommends the student for OPT in SEVIS and before the student can file Form I-765
• Proposed effective date: 60 days after a final rule is published

Optional Practical Training was never meant to be a back door into the American workforce, a subsidy for cheap labor, or a prize for those who game the system.DHS, "DHS Proposes Fees for Foreign Student Work Program to Protect American Jobs," October 7, 2026

Who actually pays, and how the mechanics work

The fee does not land on the student's own filing the way the Form I-765 fee does. Under the proposal, the SEVP-certified school has to pay the $70,000 (initial OPT) or $30,000 (subsequent OPT, including STEM OPT) charge to the government before its DSO can recommend that student for OPT in SEVIS — the step that has to happen before the student is even eligible to submit Form I-765 to USCIS. The money is deposited with the U.S. Treasury, not retained by DHS or ICE. Nothing in the proposal bars a school from passing some or all of that cost on to the student or to the employer who will benefit from the hire, and multiple schools and immigration attorneys have already said they expect that to happen in practice if the rule is finalized as proposed.

Why DHS says it is doing this

DHS frames the fee as an anti-fraud and labor-protection measure rather than a straightforward revenue rule. The agency points to investigations involving fraudulent OPT/STEM OPT employers, shell companies, falsified training plans, and what it calls "pay-to-stay" arrangements where an employment relationship exists on paper only to preserve a student's status. DHS also argues that making the fee large enough to matter will push schools to scrutinize OPT recommendations more carefully before making them, rather than treating OPT as close to automatic for any F-1 graduate who asks. Separately, several of the law firms and commentators tracking the rule read it as doing double duty: discouraging employers from using OPT and the STEM OPT extension as a lower-cost detour around DHS's separate, still-pending $103,265 H-1B cap-subject petition fee proposal and the litigated $100,000 Proclamation 10973 fee (see our earlier articles on both).

Two separate fees, one combined number — where the "$100,000 OPT fee" headlines came from

Media reports in the weeks before publication cited unnamed sources describing a flat $100,000 OPT fee, and some coverage since publication has kept using that figure as shorthand. The NPRM itself does not create a single $100,000 charge. It creates two separate fees — $70,000 for initial OPT and $30,000 for any later period — that only add up to $100,000 for the specific case of a STEM graduate who completes standard post-completion OPT and then receives the STEM OPT extension. A graduate who never pursues the STEM extension, or whose degree does not qualify for one, would generate only the $70,000 initial-OPT charge for their school under this proposal, not $100,000.

Reactions

University associations and immigration advocates have reacted sharply. The Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration warned that the fee would "dismantle" the international talent pipeline that OPT has long represented and undercut U.S. competitiveness for global students. Higher-education trade press and immigration law firms have both flagged the realistic possibility that some schools, especially smaller or tuition-dependent institutions, could choose to scale back or stop recommending students for OPT altogether rather than absorb or pass along six-figure fees per student. Employers who rely on OPT and STEM OPT as a bridge to H-1B sponsorship are watching for the same reason: a fee landed on the school, rather than the employer, still changes the economics of hiring an OPT-authorized graduate if the school passes the cost through.

What is confirmed versus what is still undecided

• Confirmed: the NPRM text, the exact proposed dollar figures ($70,000 / $30,000), the RIN and docket numbers, and the November 9, 2026 comment deadline are all public as of October 8, 2026.
• Not yet decided: whether DHS finalizes the rule at these dollar amounts, on this timeline, or at all — the agency is required to review public comments first, and the amounts, the payer, or the effective date could all change in a final rule.
• No effective date exists yet — the proposal contemplates one starting 60 days after a final rule publishes, and no final rule has been published.
• As with the still-litigated $100,000 H-1B Proclamation fee and the proposed $103,265 H-1B cap-subject fee, expect legal challenges if DHS finalizes this fee substantially as proposed.

What this means for you right now

• Nothing is owed today. If you are currently on OPT or STEM OPT, or your Form I-765 is already filed or approved, this proposal does not reach you retroactively.
• If you are an F-1 student planning to apply for OPT or the STEM OPT extension in the coming months, this fee is not in effect and has no confirmed start date — do not assume it will apply to your timeline, but do watch for your school's guidance in case it decides, in anticipation of a final rule, to change how it handles OPT recommendations.
• International student offices and DSOs should watch the regulations.gov docket (ICEB-2026-0100) and consider submitting comments before November 9, 2026 if the proposal would affect their institution.
• Employers who rely on OPT/STEM OPT hires as a bridge to H-1B sponsorship should factor this proposal, alongside the pending $103,265 H-1B fee proposal, into longer-range hiring and budget planning, while recognizing neither has been finalized.

Bottom line

As of October 8, 2026, DHS has proposed — not finalized — a $70,000 fee on a student's first period of OPT and a $30,000 fee on every later period, including the STEM OPT extension, payable by the student's school rather than the student directly. The rule is now a real, published NPRM with a comment deadline of November 9, 2026, not the placeholder or rumored figure it was over the summer. Nothing changes for current OPT or STEM OPT holders today, and the proposal could still be revised or abandoned after the comment period. We will update this article once DHS reviews comments and either finalizes, revises, or withdraws the proposed rule.