The Trump administration is weighing a $100,000 fee on Optional Practical Training (OPT), the work permit that allows international students to stay in the United States after graduating from an American university, according to The Wall Street Journal. The proposal comes weeks after a federal court struck down a nearly identical fee on H-1B visas.
A familiar playbook
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reportedly considering the fee for OPT, an extension of the F-1 student visa that allows foreign graduates to work in the US for one to three years in fields related to their studies. Roughly 419,000 foreigners were working on OPT in 2024, the most recent year for which data is available.This is not the administration’s first attempt at a six-figure visa fee. In September 2025, it imposed a $100,000 charge on new H-1B applications through a presidential proclamation. Technology companies, which conduct most of the recruitment from US universities, opposed the measure, arguing it would cut off access to skilled labour. The opposition did not stay confined to boardrooms, it reached the courts.A federal judge in Boston, Judge Sorokin, struck down the H-1B fee in June, ruling that it exceeded the government’s authority under the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that limits how far federal agencies can act without approval from Congress. The administration sought a stay from the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit while it appeals the ruling. A three-judge panel denied that request on July 24, finding the government had not shown it was likely to succeed.The OPT fee, then, does not arrive as a first move. It arrives as a fallback. One route was blocked. Another has opened.
What DHS is saying
A DHS spokeswoman addressed the reports in a statement carried by PTI: “No policies should be considered final until formally announced. At DHS we are always having conversations about how to use all tools in our arsenal to protect the integrity of our legal immigration system.”The statement neither confirms nor denies the proposal. It simply keeps every option open, which has become the administration’s preferred way of discussing immigration policy before it is formally announced.
Why OPT matters
For many international students, OPT is not a side benefit of studying in the US. It is the reason they choose an American university in the first place. Without it, most graduates would be forced to leave the country as soon as their coursework ends, carrying the training they received at US institutions to job markets elsewhere.The scale of the programme shows what is at stake. Nearly 300,000 international students were on OPT as of last fall, about a quarter of the total foreign student population in the US, according to the Institute of International Education.
Who pays the price
The fallout from the H-1B fee offers an early preview of what an OPT fee could do. The University of Texas at Arlington reported a 20 percent drop in international enrollment for fall 2025 and projected tuition revenue losses of between $13 million and $15.6 million for the current fiscal year, according to Tech Times. Northwestern University cited falling international enrollment as one reason it eliminated 425 positions, froze hiring, and deferred construction projects, the outlet reported.An OPT fee would shift that burden further, from institutions to individuals. It is students, not companies, who would have to pay to stay employed in the US after graduation. Google, Microsoft, and Meta are the country’s three largest H-1B sponsors, and OPT is typically how they convert campus recruits into long-term hires, long before those hires ever reach the H-1B stage.
A widening net
The OPT fee is not an isolated proposal. Officials at the State Department are also weighing a $100,000 bond on green card applicants outside the US, redeemable only after they move to the country and become citizens, PTI reports. Between H-1B, OPT, and green cards, the same figure keeps reappearing at nearly every stage of the immigration process, from the moment a student enrolls to the moment they might, years later, apply for citizenship.
What comes next
Nothing here is confirmed. DHS has said as much itself, but the pattern is hard to miss. A fee that failed once, on H-1B, is now being tested on a different visa altogether. For international students already navigating years of paperwork, deadlines, and sponsorship, the message stays the same regardless of which visa carries the price tag: staying in the US after graduation is no longer only a matter of qualifications. It is, increasingly, a matter of what they can afford.
