The OPT permit gives foreign students and recent graduates of U.S. schools up to three years to stay in the U.S. and work.
"Recent graduates of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism are pushing back start dates for internships and relying on their parents for day-to-day expenses. Students at Princeton have had job offers rescinded, and have been forced to return home for the summer. At Dartmouth College, students reported losing money they spent for housing and flights to live and work in other states. At Yale, students scrambled to enroll in a newly created course that would allow the university to approve their summer employment."
Processing delays have become an issue because students can only apply for OPT work authorization 90 days before a job is scheduled to start.
The letter cited studies saying visa processing times jumped 46 percent over the past two fiscal years, that new enrollments by foreign students at U.S. graduate schools had fallen for the second year in a row, and that enrollment of new international students in U.S. undergraduate programs had fallen 9 percent since the 2015-16 school year.
At Yale University, a student petition concerning the OPT delays led the school to announce it would launch a class in the fall that would allow the school to approve foreign students for U.S. work via the "Curricular Practical Training" program, which authorizes work through agreements between employers and schools, the Yale Daily News reported earlier this month.
A prominent critic of the OPT program, the Center for Immigration Studies, argues that the work permit provides an incentive to companies to hire foreign workers, because OPT holders are considered students for tax purposes, and employers get a tax break of about 8 percent by hiring people without the requirement to pay Social Security and Medicare contributions.
The center's John Miano said complaints from schools connecting declining enrollment of foreign students to OPT delays points to gaming of the visa system.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/18/h-1b-visa-amid-opt-work-permit-delays-foreign-students-reportedly-losing-internship-opportunities/
"Recent graduates of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism are pushing back start dates for internships and relying on their parents for day-to-day expenses. Students at Princeton have had job offers rescinded, and have been forced to return home for the summer. At Dartmouth College, students reported losing money they spent for housing and flights to live and work in other states. At Yale, students scrambled to enroll in a newly created course that would allow the university to approve their summer employment."
Processing delays have become an issue because students can only apply for OPT work authorization 90 days before a job is scheduled to start.
The letter cited studies saying visa processing times jumped 46 percent over the past two fiscal years, that new enrollments by foreign students at U.S. graduate schools had fallen for the second year in a row, and that enrollment of new international students in U.S. undergraduate programs had fallen 9 percent since the 2015-16 school year.
At Yale University, a student petition concerning the OPT delays led the school to announce it would launch a class in the fall that would allow the school to approve foreign students for U.S. work via the "Curricular Practical Training" program, which authorizes work through agreements between employers and schools, the Yale Daily News reported earlier this month.
A prominent critic of the OPT program, the Center for Immigration Studies, argues that the work permit provides an incentive to companies to hire foreign workers, because OPT holders are considered students for tax purposes, and employers get a tax break of about 8 percent by hiring people without the requirement to pay Social Security and Medicare contributions.
The center's John Miano said complaints from schools connecting declining enrollment of foreign students to OPT delays points to gaming of the visa system.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/18/h-1b-visa-amid-opt-work-permit-delays-foreign-students-reportedly-losing-internship-opportunities/
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