DHS proposes a $70,000 fee before a school may recommend a foreign graduate for work
The Department of Homeland Security announced a proposed rule Wednesday that would charge $70,000 each time a school recommends an F-1 student for an initial period of Optional Practical Training, the program that lets international graduates work in the U.S. for a year, or three for STEM fields. Each later recommendation, including the 24-month STEM extension, would cost $30,000. The fee falls on the school; the rule does not bar schools from passing it to students or employers. A school official could not enter the recommendation into the SEVIS tracking system until the fee is paid, and USCIS would not approve the work application without it. DHS cites fraud and abuse found by its student-visa program, administrative costs and a wish to reduce reliance on OPT as a long-term employment path. Publication in the Federal Register is set for Thursday, with a 30-day comment period; if finalized, the fee would apply 60 days after the final rule and not to recommendations issued before then. It follows the $100,000 H-1B petition fee, currently blocked in litigation. University groups called it prohibitive; the Presidents' Alliance said it would dismantle the international talent pipeline.
OPT is the bridge between an American degree and an American job for several hundred thousand graduates a year, and it is a large reason international students, who pay full tuition, choose U.S. universities. A $70,000 toll would make a one-year work period cost more than many master's degrees. Universities are the ones billed, so the fight will be led by them, not by students.
If you are an international student graduating in spring 2027, nothing changes yet; this is a proposal. If you are a university administrator or an employer who hires on OPT, the comment period is your 30 days. If you are a U.S. graduate, the administration's argument is that this opens jobs for you; economists' evidence on that is mixed.
OPT grew into a shadow work-visa program with little oversight, and employers used it to avoid payroll taxes. Making schools pay for the recommendations they hand out is the one lever that forces discipline.
A fee this large is a ban by another name. The students it drives away are the ones founding startups and staffing labs; they will finish their degrees in Canada or Britain and work there.
Read the mechanics, not the headline: the school pays, before the student can even apply. That design means the lawsuit, when it comes, will be about whether DHS can price a recommendation it does not itself issue. Watch Thursday's Federal Register text for the comment deadline, Nov. 7 or Nov. 9 depending on who is counting.
DailyDrop U.S. No. 3 · October 7, 2026