My comment on the proposed $70,000 OPT fee
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a $70,000 fee on Optional Practical Training, and the comment period closes tonight, November 9, at 11:59 PM ET. I filed my comment this morning. It is below, in full, exactly as submitted.
If you have a view on this, you can still file your own comment before midnight at regulations.gov, docket ICEB-2026-0100: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/ICEB-2026-0100-0001
Comment tracking number: mw9-c1dj-251h. Once the agency posts it, you can find it on Regulations.gov with that number.
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I write as the founder of OPT Global, an international career coaching consultancy — and I should start by saying plainly that this rule would be good for my business. If OPT disappeared, students would need my help more, not less, and I would probably make a lot of money. I am opposing the rule anyway, because the value of OPT to the United States, to our competitiveness, and to the students we invited here is worth far more than what my company would gain. I also work at a large research university, but these comments are my own, not my employer's.
DHS says this rule targets fraud and protects American workers. Take that at face value, then do the math: the current I-765 filing fee for OPT is $470. This proposal sets it at $70,000. Is fraud really 150 times more expensive to prevent than to commit?
And be clear about who pays: the university does. This is a fee on the school for recommending a student for practical training — $70,000 per initial recommendation, $100,000 for a student who uses post-completion OPT and then a STEM extension. It is not a fee on a student, and it is not a fee on fraud. It is a fee on the institution that educated the student and is asked to vouch for them.
American universities are the engine of scientific progress, and that has been America's leading strength. This rule taxes that engine directly. A university facing $70,000 per recommendation will recommend fewer students, ration access, or cut elsewhere to absorb the cost. In every version, the university does less of what made it valuable, and the student loses the training that was part of why they came.
That is how American competitiveness falls behind. In 2024, 165,524 foreign students participated in STEM OPT, according to ICE's 2024 SEVIS by the Numbers report. Those are the engineers, researchers, and technologists American employers hire because the domestic pipeline does not yet produce enough of them. Every recommendation a university cannot afford is one fewer STEM graduate working here — and the countries competing with us for the same talent will take the ones we turn away.
DHS also expects schools to "steer students toward post-completion OPT only" under the fee structure. The agency's own proposal predicts it will distort student decision-making away from pre-completion OPT, which exists because early work experience helps students land. When your rule needs a disclaimer about the behavior it will cause, that is the rule telling you what it costs.
There is a promise at stake, too. We brought these students to this country, and in doing so we entered into a social contract with them: an American education came with practical training attached. That was the value of our education to the world — not just the degree, but the chance to do the work. A $70,000 price on the university's recommendation breaks that promise after students have already invested years and tuition. The world notices when America's word on its own education does not hold.
Here is what $70,000 buys the American economy under this rule: nothing. The fees go to the general Treasury, not to the SEVP system that administers OPT. American workers, whose protection is the stated goal, gain no jobs from a rule that makes universities poorer and hiring new graduates more expensive.
If fraud is the problem, price the enforcement at the fraud. At $70,000, this isn't enforcement. It's a velvet rope — hung across the university door.
Withdraw the proposal.
Respectfully submitted,
Richard Spicer
Founder & CEO, OPT Global
Contact: richard@optglobal.org
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Richard Spicer
Founder & CEO, OPT Global
richard@optglobal.org | optglobal.org | +1-814-380-2917
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