$100,000 OPT Fee: What Students Should Do Now

The $100,000 OPT Fee Is Still Only a Proposal — But One Real Deadline Is Already on the Calendar

If you are finishing a US degree this year, one number has been sitting in your group chats since the end of July: $100,000. The claim is that international graduates may soon have to pay it to work in America on OPT. Before you rewrite your entire plan, here is the part almost nobody is saying clearly — nothing has been announced, nothing has been published, and no student has been asked to pay anything.

But there is a real deadline in this story. It just isn’t the one everyone is panicking about.

The short answer

Is the $100,000 OPT fee real? No fee exists yet. Reports published on 30 July and 3 August 2026 say the Trump administration is considering a $100,000 charge tied to Optional Practical Training, but it remains under discussion and has not taken effect. No regulation has been published, and it is unclear who would even pay it.

What was actually reported

The story began with a Wall Street Journal report, later covered widely. According to that reporting, the proposal is being discussed inside the Department of Homeland Security but has not been formally approved or published as a proposed regulation, and important details — including whether the student, the university or the employer would pay — remain unresolved.DHS told the newspaper that policies should not be treated as final before a formal announcement, and the department has not published regulatory language explaining who would be covered, what exemptions might exist, or how such a fee would be administered.

That is an unusually thin foundation for a number this large. It is a discussion, not a rule.

The scale of who would be caught is not small. Roughly 294,000 international students took part in OPT during the 2024-25 academic year, according to Institute of International Education data. Other government figures cited in coverage put around 419,000 international graduates in employment under the programme in 2024.

Why the number is $100,000 — and why that matters legally

This is not the first $100,000 in this administration’s immigration file. In September 2025 the administration used section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to impose a $100,000 H-1B fee by proclamation. That attempt did not survive contact with the courts.

In June 2026, a federal judge in Massachusetts, ruling nationwide in a case brought by a coalition of 20 states led by California, vacated the policy implementing the proclamation. The court reasoned that the $100,000 payment requirement functioned as a tax rather than a penalty, and that the INA provisions granting the President discretion over entry do not hand him Congress’s taxing power. In July, the First Circuit refused to stay that decision; the administration has appealed.

That history is the single best predictor of what happens next. Immigration lawyers quoted in coverage have questioned what legal authority could support an OPT fee at all, given a court has already characterised an identical-sized charge as an unconstitutional tax. One attorney, Dan Berger of Green & Spiegel, noted that a charge of this kind would be a tax not created by Congress and a major change made without notice and comment — while adding that damage is done simply by floating the idea: “There is too much uncertainty,” he said of how students now view the US

There is a second complication. The 212(f) authority applies to entry, not to people who change status inside the United States — so using it for OPT would imply expecting graduates to leave the country and re-enter, paying the fee on the way back in. That is a far messier mechanism than a simple filing fee, and it is one reason experienced practitioners are treating this as unlikely to arrive quickly in the form described.

There is also a timing signal worth knowing. A rule on Optional Practical Training no longer appears on the DHS regulatory agenda as a proposed rule for 2026 — the agenda now lists February 2027 as the expected publication date.

The deadline that is real: 15 September 2026 and 18 March 2027

Here is the part that has been buried under the fee headlines, and it affects far more students.

On 17 July 2026, DHS published a final rule changing the admission period for F, J and I nonimmigrants from duration of status to a fixed time period, with an effective date of 15 September 2026. It is classified as a major rule subject to congressional review. Fixed admission periods run up to four years for F-1 and J-1 holders, and anyone needing to stay beyond that authorised period must file an extension of stay with USCIS, submit biometrics and show continued eligibility.

Now the important sentence for anyone heading toward OPT:

Current F students admitted under duration of status who are in the United States when the rule takes effect on 15 September 2026, and who timely file for post-completion OPT or STEM OPT by 18 March 2027, do not need to file a separate extension-of-stay application. That date is the 244th day after the final rule’s publication.After 18 March 2027, students filing for post-completion OPT or STEM OPT must file Form I-539 for extension of stay alongside the I-765 OPT application. Because authorised stay becomes tied to a fixed I-94 date, filing the I-765 alone will no longer protect your lawful stay if the I-94 expires while the application is pending.

In plain terms: for a defined window, the old, simpler path is still open. After it closes, OPT becomes a two-form process with an extra fee, extra biometrics and extra processing risk — regardless of whether any $100,000 fee ever exists.

One travel decision can cost you that window

Students who travel before filing for post-completion OPT or STEM OPT and are readmitted with a fixed period of admission must file both an extension-of-stay application and the OPT application. From 15 September 2026, returning students may be admitted with a new fixed period tied to the programme end date on the Form I-20, capped at four years.

So a routine trip home between graduation and filing can convert a one-form process into a two-form process. Check your I-94 record immediately after any arrival.

What still works the way it did

Not everything tightened. F-1 students who timely apply for a STEM OPT extension still receive the automatic 180-day extension of employment authorisation — that auto-extension is unchanged by the new regulation. Students with on-campus, CPT or economic-hardship employment authorisation gain a new automatic extension of up to 240 days when they timely file an extension of stay. H-1B cap-gap protections are also preserved.And the rule does not eliminate OPT or STEM OPT.

The programme structure itself is intact: standard post-completion OPT generally runs up to 12 months, with a further 24-month extension for qualifying STEM graduates.

Your next 60 days: a practical checklist

1. Pull your I-94 record now and write the end date somewhere you will see it. Under a fixed-admission system, that date — not your enthusiasm — governs your lawful stay.
2. Book time with your DSO before mid-September. Your designated school official has your SEVIS record and your programme end date. This is the single highest-value hour available to you, and it is free.
3. Work backwards from 18 March 2027. If your graduation timing allows you to file the I-765 inside that window, that is worth real money and real risk avoidance.
4. Postpone non-essential travel between programme completion and your OPT filing, if you can. Re-entry changes your admission basis.
5. Do not pay anyone who says they can “pre-pay” or “lock in” an OPT fee. No such fee exists. Treat any such offer as a scam.
6. Bookmark primary sources, not screenshots. The Federal Register and DHS Study in the States pages are where a real change would appear first.
7. Start the H-1B and employer conversation earlier than you planned. Fixed admission periods compress the timeline in which sponsorship decisions must be made.

If you are still choosing a country

None of this makes the US a closed door — but it does change the arithmetic if you are applying for 2027 intakes rather than already enrolled. As of August 2026, other destinations publish their post-study windows openly: Canada’s Post-Graduation Work Permit runs up to three years and feeds directly into Express Entry; Germany offers an 18-month job-seeker permit after graduation from a recognised university; Australia’s Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) runs two years or more depending on qualification; and the UK’s Graduate Route currently sits at two years, with a reduction to 18 months announced for the 2027 cycle.

Verify each of these on the relevant government site before you decide — post-study rules have been among the fastest-changing policies in the world over the last 24 months, and this is exactly the category where secondary sources go stale within weeks.

What to watch next

• A notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register. Until that appears, there is no fee to comply with.
• White House sign-off, which reporting indicates was not settled.
• The First Circuit appeal on the H-1B fee. If the taxing-power reasoning holds on appeal, an OPT fee built the same way faces the same wall.
• The February 2027 date on the DHS regulatory agenda — the closest thing to an official timeline currently visible.

Key Takeaways

• No $100,000 OPT fee exists. It is reported internal discussion at DHS, with no published rule and no confirmed payer.
• A near-identical H-1B fee was struck down by a federal court as a tax Congress never authorised; the appeal is live.
• The real, dated change is the duration-of-status rule, effective 15 September 2026.
• 18 March 2027 is the deadline that matters: file post-completion OPT or STEM OPT on or before it and skip the separate extension-of-stay application.
• Travel before filing can cost you that simpler route.
• Talk to your DSO now, and treat any “pay the OPT fee early” offer as fraud.

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