DHS Proposes $70,000 Fee for F-1 Student OPT Program
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed a major change to the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for F-1 international students. Under a proposed rule published on October 8, 2026, schools would be required to pay a $70,000 fee the first time an F-1 student
Openbound perspective
A proposed OPT fee could change the internship-to-job calculation
Visa Lawyer Blog reports a DHS proposal tied to F-1 Optional Practical Training. The limited preview points to a school-paid fee and raises new questions for students weighing US work plans.
Visa Lawyer Blog reports that DHS has proposed a major change to the F-1 Optional Practical Training program, with schools required to pay a large fee in the scenario described in the preview. [1]
Openbound reads that preview as a planning signal, not a final outcome: the practical issue for students and visa-dependent professionals is whether schools, recruiters, and employers would still treat OPT as a routine bridge to US work. This commentary is based only on the limited preview, not the full rule text. [1]
- Ask whether a school expects to absorb the cost, shift it elsewhere, or narrow its use of OPT-related placements.
- Compare job offers by asking how dependent a role is on OPT timing and whether the employer has alternatives if that pathway becomes harder to use.
- Treat the preview as a reason to stress-test backup plans, not as a conclusion about what will ultimately happen.
What the preview shows
Visa Lawyer Blog says DHS has proposed a change affecting F-1 OPT. In the preview, the rule would place a large first-time fee burden on schools when an F-1 student uses OPT. That is the only reported mechanism available from the source preview.
Because this is only a preview, it cannot establish the rule’s final shape, how widely it would apply, or whether the proposal remains intact after further rulemaking. Any career move should stay conditional until more detail is available.
Why students should care
For international students, OPT often sits at the hinge point between campus life and a first US job. If schools face a new cost tied to OPT use, that could affect how they think about advising, recruiting, and which opportunities they support.
The career tradeoff is less about paperwork than about whether a school still sees OPT as a priority pathway. Students may want to ask how this could affect internship pipelines, post-graduation hiring, and conversations with employers who expect OPT to be available.
Questions to ask before planning a US job
Openbound’s interpretation is that this preview should prompt scenario planning, not panic. Students and visa-dependent professionals can ask whether their school or recruiter is assuming OPT is still the default bridge to work.
It is also worth asking whether an institution would treat the reported cost as manageable, or as a reason to limit participation. A useful fallback question is how much of a US job search depends on one authorization path versus a broader set of options.