In an important win for foreign students who are pursuing education in the US on its F-1 student visa and who availed the OPT program for gaining important job experience and trying to obtain job offers and PR, a court has over turned the appeal of tech employees union who were trying to overturn a regulation from the DHS to issue OPT for three or more years for few students on STEM track.
Since the latest rule has came into force from 10th May 2016. The DHS has changed an old regulation governing the OPT program for students on F-1 visa. The amendments include condition for the employers to offer educational training when providing job to the students on OPT program.
The main issue in the dispute was whether the US DHS could effectively change the F-1 student visa into a guest employee visa.
Under this OPT program, few students on F-1 student visa in STEM streams could provisionally work in the US, even when they no longer remain as students.
The latest regulation would now let the STEM related graduate to extend their first one year period of OPT by an additional two years, for a sum of three years.
They could gain yet another two years of OPT program if they get another advanced degree from an accredited university in the US.
The employers need to offer educational training as part of their job offer to students on F-1 visa on the OPT program.
