US gives H-1B related assistance to foreign students

07 April 2008

The United States has extended the time a foreign student can work under a program which grants a student permission to be employed in a job closely related to his or her studies.

The Optional Practical Training program allows foreign students on F1 visas to work either while they are studying, or for a specified period upon completion of their studies.

The new rule extends this post-study period of work permission from 12 to 29 months, in an effort to allow foreign science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students who have been accepted under the H-1B visa program to remain resident in the US and working under OPT until receiving their H-1B visa the following fiscal year.

The extension is only available for students of eligible STEM degrees, and "gives U.S. businesses two chances to recruit these highly desirable graduates through the H-1B process," United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a statement.

Eligible STEM degrees include:

• Computer Science Applications
• Actuarial Science
• Engineering
• Life Sciences
• Mathematics
• Military Technologies
• Physical Sciences

For a STEM student to be eligible for the 17 month extension to the OPT program, he or she must have a bachelor's, master's, or doctorates degree in a STEM field. Students must also be enrolled in E-Verify, which allows employers to test a foreign student's legal ability to work in the US.

Eligible students must apply at least 90 days before their current post-study OPT period expires.