Synopsis
The OPT (Optional Practical Training) program provides one year of work authorization to students who finish their degrees. The law requires that the students must work in their own field for no less than 20 hours each week - paid or unpaid. Full time employment is permitted, but not required.
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Khanna is a member of the Virginia and D.C. Bars and the principal of the Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khanna, PC. Since 1993, he has focused his and the firm’s practice on employment and business-based immigration and related administrative and federal audits, investigations and litigation. The firm represents individuals and businesses from every major city in the US and internationally.
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A U.S. District Court judge issued an opinion last week upholding a program important to many in higher education that allows international students to stay and work in the U.S. after they graduate in a field related to their area of study.
Nearly a quarter million people participate in the optional practical training program, or OPT, which allows international students to work in the U.S. for up to three years after graduating while staying on their student visas. The regular OPT program provides for one year of postgraduation work authorization, while the STEM OPT extension enables graduates who earned degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields to stay for an additional two years.
2 Feb 2021
President Joe Biden is expected to OK the entry of tens of thousands of foreign graduates to fill the Fortune 500 jobs needed by his college voters when he ends President Donald Trump’s June 2020 migration curbs.
On Tuesday, Biden is expected to sign executive orders that will “rescind the Trump proclamations that precluded the admission of immigrants and non-immigrants either deemed to be a financial burden on our health care system or deemed to present a risk to U.S. labor markets,” a Biden deputy said, according to a January 29 report by CBS.
Government data shows that CEOs already employ at least one million non-immigrant contract workers in white-collar jobs.
In a year of uncertainty, and fear one could argue, it is okay to postpone your plans. Nothing is happening anyway. It s okay. Things will happen when they happen. And I agree with those statements. However, while many segments of our lives are on hold (leases are not getting increased, student loans are frozen, etc.), many are still running, just like my student visa deadline.
I went home to Brazil almost one year ago, on March 7th, 2020. It was my spring break, and I was supposed to only spend one week at home. I ended up staying for 10 months. Universities closed their campuses and went virtual. My other international friends had to leave the country. Everyone knows it was a weird time. However, I am very grateful to have been safe with my family, at the comfort of my home.
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Earlier this week, on January 26, 2021, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) rescinded its intention, announced less than two weeks earlier, to develop an OPT Employment Compliance Unit. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) compliance-focused plan included close collaboration with other government agencies.
According to SEVP, following additional reviews of ICE’s current Optional Practical Training (OPT) compliance efforts, much of the work to be designated to the OPT Employment Compliance Unit is already being performed by SEVP and therefore they determined the additional unit is not needed. While we are uncertain as to the internal discourse leading up to the quick rescission, it is likely that new administration team members reviewed the optics of the unit, the timing of the announcement (a week before the inauguration), and the potential impact on foreign students wanting to study in the U.