F-1 Student Visas

STEM degree list for OPT extensions expanded

News Release from Jewell & Associates, PC – May 17, 2012 International students who graduate from U.S. universities are able to remain here and receive training through work experience for up to twelve months. This is known as Optional Practical Training (OPT). Students who graduate from a designated science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degree, who have jobs related to their field of study with employers who are enrolled in the government’s E-Verify program, can remain in the U.S. for an additional seventeen months on an OPT STEM extension. We covered the regulation establishing this extension in a detailed post in 2008.

On May 11, 2012 the Department of Homeland Security announced an expanded list of STEM designated-degree programs that qualify eligible graduates for this extension. The list now includes fields such as pharmaceutical sciences, econometrics, quantitative economics, and more. A full list of STEM degrees is available here, with new additions in bold, and will be of interest to students, employers, and employees with eligible degrees who are currently in their first 12 months of OPT.

© Jewell & Associates, PC 2012

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New regulation on F-1 OPT extensions

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On April 8, 2008, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published an Interim Final Rule, effective immediately, that provides for additional Optional Practical Training (OPT) work authorization for foreign nationals in F-1 student visa status who would otherwise be limited to twelve months of OPT.  The new regulation provides two types of prolonged OPT: (1) an automatic extension of OPT to bridge the “cap gap” between an employee’s OPT expiration date and the October 1st date when an approved cap-subject H-1B petition takes effect; and (2) a seventeen-month extension, upon application, of OPT for graduates of U.S. degree programs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (“STEM” degrees) who have jobs related to their field of study with employers who are enrolled in the government’s E-Verify program.