DHS Just Proposed a $70,000 Fee on Foreign-Student Work Permits. Protect American Graduates
A proposed rule filed Oct. 8 would charge schools $70,000 for a student's first Optional Practical Training term and $30,000 for later ones. In our view, OPT became a cheap-labor pipeline — and this is how you shrink it without waiting another decade.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS OPINION | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | October 12, 2026 | 6-min read For years, Optional Practical Training was sold as a short bridge from classroom to career for foreign students. Too often it became something else: a low-friction way to put nonimmigrant labor into American jobs. On Oct. 7, the Department of Homeland Security announced a proposed rule — not a final rule — to change the price of that bridge: a $70,000 fee for a student's initial OPT recommendation and $30,000 for any subsequent OPT, paid by the school before a recommendation goes into the system [1][2]. The Federal Register notice of proposed rulemaking published Oct. 8; comments must be received on or before Nov. 9, 2026, and any final rule would take effect only after publication plus a later effective date [2]. In our view, this is overdue. American graduates should not have to underbid a program that was never meant to be a shadow guest-worker system. Key Takeaways Proposed fees: $70,000 per F-1 student for initial OPT; $30,000 for any subsequent OPT, including STEM extensions [1][2]. SEVP-certified schools