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Students / CPT / OPT / STEM

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Continuing the Administration’s high scrutiny of businesses using foreign workers, including highly skilled visas, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will be conducting inspections of employers employing F-1 students using STEM Optional Practical Training to work. Under the STEM regulations, ICE has the discretion to conduct on-site inspections. Reportedly, it has…

According to Chinese government data, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States rose from fewer than 1 million in 2000 to more than 6 million in 2017. The number of these students who are returning home to China has grown at close to the same rate. In 2000, hardly any returned, but,…

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) cancelled an incoming Harvard freshman’s visa and deported him back to Lebanon eight hours after arriving at Boston’s Logan International Airport to start his college career. CBP detained the incoming student along with several other international students who were ultimately admitted to the U.S. According to reports, CBP deemed Ismail…

California SB 206 would allow college-level student-athletes in California to market their name, image, and likeness without affecting their amateur status. How may the new law, which is in the final phases of approval, affect international student-athletes?

Foreign students enter the United States on F-1 student visas. The terms of this type of visa drastically

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The plaintiffs may continue their challenge to the DHS’ authority to establish both STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) and standard post-completion OPT, the District Court in Washington Alliance of Technology Workers v. DHS held on July 1, 2019.

The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech) has been fighting for practical training for students on various…

On August 8, 2018, DHS issued a new policy that announced that foreign students would begin accumulating “unlawful presence” if any violation of status had occurred, whether known to the student or not. On May 3, 2019, in Guilford College et al. v. DHS, Judge Loretta C. Biggs in the U.S. District Court for…

President Donald Trump issued a Memorandum on April 22, 2019 aimed at reducing visa overstays – people who stay in the U.S. beyond the time authorized by their visas.  Assertions set forth in the Memorandum include:

  • For FY 2018, the Administration believes that there were 415,000 individuals in the U.S. who had overstayed on nonimmigrant

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For some time now, the U.S. has been on the lookout for students who enroll in graduate programs solely for the purpose of obtaining additional CPT (Curricular Practical Training), particularly when they do not “win” the H-1B  lottery. Indeed, USCIS has issued Requests for Evidence (RFEs) regarding H petitions when it suspects that a student…

President Donald Trump surprised the immigration community recently with an encouraging tweet about H-1B visa holders:

H-1B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship.  We want to encourage talented and highly skilled

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Although there have been discussions for some time that the Trump Administration would change the rules regarding Optional Practical Training (OPT), OPT did not show up in the most recent “regulatory agenda.”

Nevertheless, the Administration has been putting limits on F-1 students in other ways. Those changes, at least in part, are responsible for a…