Is OPT Ending? What DHS Actually Proposed in October 2026, and What Is Still Only a Possibility

No, OPT has not been cancelled. DHS proposed steep new OPT fees on October 8, 2026, and a proposal is not law. Here is what is real and what is still a rumor.

Is OPT ending? No. OPT has not been cancelled, and no published rule ends it. On October 8, 2026, DHS and ICE published a proposed rule, "Optional Practical Training Fees" (91 FR 64566), that would charge $70,000 before a student's initial OPT recommendation and $30,000 for each later one. It has no effective date and is not law. As of October 2026, OPT, the 24-month STEM extension and the unemployment limits work exactly as they did last month.

If your group chat says OPT is cancelled, or a manager has asked whether your start date is "still happening," this guide separates what is proposed from what is only possible.

Status as of October 13, 2026

• In effect: OPT and STEM OPT under the current regulations; 90/150-day unemployment limits; the 60-day F-1 grace period.
• Proposed: OPT fees of $70,000 initial / $30,000 per subsequent recommendation (published 2026-10-08, comments close 2026-11-09, effective date: none).
• Possible, not written: a broader rule on the "scope and duration" of OPT and STEM OPT (RIN 1653-AA97, no Federal Register document).
• Blocked: the Duration-of-Status rule (federal court order of 2026-09-14; DHS has appealed).

Is OPT ending? The short answer, by status label

Several different things are being blended into one headline. Separated, as of October 2026:

For every F-1 change this year, our rundown of what actually changed for F-1 students in 2026 tracks each rule with its court status.

What DHS actually proposed on October 8, 2026

The proposal is narrow in mechanism and enormous in dollars. It does not change who qualifies for OPT, how long it lasts, or what job counts as related to your degree. It adds a fee where your school recommends you.

The fee is charged per recommendation, not once. The NPRM's own worked example puts initial OPT plus STEM OPT at $100,000 in total. Some summaries describe the $30,000 as a one-time second-year charge, but the Federal Register text controls, and it says each subsequent recommendation. Our STEM OPT fee scenarios at $30,000, $70,000 and $100,000 walks through the combinations.

Who would pay under the proposal

Under the proposed text, the school pays before its Designated School Official (DSO) issues the recommendation, and USCIS could not grant employment authorization where the DSO recommended a student before the school paid. DHS says schools "may pass the financial obligation" to F-1 students, all students, or employers. How individual schools would respond is unknown while the rule is not final; ask your DSO. More detail is in our explainer on who pays the proposed $70,000 OPT fee.

When it could take effect: the realistic sequence

A proposed rule follows a fixed path. None of these steps has a set date beyond the comment deadline.

1. 2026-10-08: NPRM published in the Federal Register (Docket ICEB-2026-0100). Status: proposed.
2. Through 2026-11-09: public comment period. NAFSA said on 2026-10-07 that it "will mobilize detailed comments." Our November 2026 comment-deadline calendar lists this and the other open proposals.
3. After the comment period: DHS must review and respond to comments. There is no deadline for this.
4. Final rule (date unknown): DHS may publish a final rule, change it, or not finalize it. A final rule would state an effective date.
5. 60 days after a final rule: under the proposal, the fee would apply only to DSO recommendations dated on or after that point. Read with that transition clause, OPT already authorized before then would not appear to be affected.
6. Likely litigation: practitioners expect lawsuits if the rule is finalized. A court could delay or block it, as happened with the Duration-of-Status rule this September.

So the earliest the fee could touch anyone is a final rule plus 60 days, and the final rule itself does not exist.

Why "OPT cancelled" headlines exist

DHS's own framing is aggressive. Its 2026-10-07 press release said: "Optional Practical Training was never meant to be a back door into the American workforce." Inside the NPRM, DHS says that without fees it "may shut down the program entirely."

That second sentence drives most "opt elimination" posts. Read it precisely: it sits inside a document that proposes to keep the program with fees. It is a signal of direction worth taking seriously, but it is not a rule, and it ends nothing.

The scale explains the reaction. The NPRM reports 194,554 F-1 students in pre- or post-completion OPT employment in calendar year 2024 and 165,524 in STEM OPT, and says about 20% of roughly 1.4 million F-1 students used OPT in 2024. Those are the NPRM's own figures; other reports count "OPT participants" differently, so do not mix the metrics.

Is STEM OPT ending? The second rule that has not been written

This is the genuinely uncertain part.

In a letter dated 2026-01-09, DHS said it is "re-evaluating the scope and duration of Optional Practical Training (OPT), including STEM OPT." That review sits under a separate regulatory identifier, RIN 1653-AA97. As of this writing, no Federal Register document exists for it: no proposed rule, no text, no comment period.

A future proposal could try to shorten OPT, narrow STEM OPT or change eligibility. Nobody outside DHS knows what it would say. Any such change would have to go through the same proposed-rule, comment and final-rule process described above, and would likely face litigation. So the honest answer to "is STEM OPT ending" is: not now, not under any published rule, and any change would come with public notice first. For how STEM OPT fits alongside post-completion OPT and CPT, see our OPT vs STEM OPT vs CPT comparison for 2026.

What has not changed

The day-to-day rules that govern your OPT are untouched.

• Unemployment limits: 90 days on post-completion OPT, and 150 days in aggregate if you have the 24-month STEM extension. SEVP's guidance is in ICE broadcast BCM 2101-01. For how those days are counted, see our explainer on how the OPT unemployment clock works in 2026.
• The F-1 grace period: still 60 days after program or OPT completion, because the Duration-of-Status rule was blocked by a federal court on 2026-09-14. DHS has appealed, and the appeal does not revive the rule; our Duration-of-Status appeal tracker follows it.
• The I-765 application itself: the current filing fee and the $1,780 OPT premium-processing fee are unchanged by this proposal. USCIS lists the accepted edition (08/21/25) and fee on the Form I-765 page.
• CPT: outside this proposal. SEVP's August 2026 CPT broadcasts are in effect as guidance and challenged in AAU v. DHS, with a hearing set for 2026-11-06.
• Travel: do not travel while your OPT or STEM OPT I-765 is pending; talk to your DSO before any trip.

What this means for your job search right now

You cannot control a rulemaking. You can control how clearly you explain your status to employers reading the same headlines.

Employers pay no OPT fee today. If a recruiter asks whether hiring you on OPT now costs $70,000, the accurate answer is that the fee is a proposal with no effective date, and that, as proposed, the legal payer would be the school, not the employer. Our guide on whether employers will stop hiring OPT students over the proposed fee walks through how to have that conversation without overstating anything.

The recommendation date is what the proposal keys on. Because the proposed fee would attach to DSO recommendations dated 60 or more days after a final rule, some students are asking about filing timing. Your DSO knows your program end date and how your school is reading the proposal. Ask them. If your situation also involves a pending H-1B, a change of status or a prior status problem, that question goes to a licensed immigration attorney instead.

Keep your search crossed with your status. The same employer rules apply as last month: work directly related to your degree, and for STEM OPT an E-Verify employer and a Form I-983 training plan. Keep your unemployment-day count accurate, and treat the fee news as something to monitor, not something that has happened.

Common mistakes

• Treating a proposed rule as law. Until a final rule publishes with an effective date, the current rules govern.
• Telling an employer that OPT now costs them money. It does not. As proposed, the school would be the legal payer.
• Assuming the $30,000 is a one-time second fee. The proposed text charges $30,000 for each subsequent recommendation.
• Confusing "DHS is re-evaluating STEM OPT" with "STEM OPT is ending." A review with no published text is not a rule.
• Mixing up the two grace-period stories. A separate proposal targets the worker 60-day grace period (H-1B and similar), and its comments close 2026-11-10. It does not cover F-1 or OPT. Your F-1 60-day grace period is intact.
• Relying on school web pages written before mid-September. Some still describe the blocked Duration-of-Status rule as if it took effect. Confirm with your DSO.
• Making a filing or travel decision from a news clip. Your own I-20, EAD and SEVIS record govern over anything published online, including this article.

Frequently asked questions

Is OPT ending in 2026?

No. As of mid-October 2026, OPT and the 24-month STEM OPT extension are still available under the existing rules. On October 8, 2026 DHS published a proposed rule that would add new fees, and a proposed rule has no legal effect until DHS publishes a final rule. No rule ending OPT has been published.

Is STEM OPT ending?

Not today. The 24-month STEM extension still exists and is governed by the current regulations. The fee proposal would treat STEM OPT as a subsequent recommendation carrying a $30,000 fee, and DHS has separately said it is re-evaluating the scope and duration of OPT including STEM OPT, but no rule changing STEM OPT has been published.

Do I have to pay $70,000 for OPT now?

No. The $70,000 fee is proposed, not in effect, and under the proposal the SEVP-certified school is the legal payer, although DHS says schools may pass the cost on to students or employers. As proposed, it would apply only to DSO recommendations dated 60 or more days after a final rule is published, and no final rule exists.

Did the OPT unemployment limit change in 2026?

No. You still have 90 days of unemployment on post-completion OPT and 150 days in aggregate if you receive the 24-month STEM extension. Neither the fee proposal nor any other published rule changes those limits.

Can I comment on the OPT fee proposal?

Yes. The proposed rule is open for public comment through November 9, 2026 on its Federal Register docket (ICEB-2026-0100). Anyone can submit a comment, and DHS has to consider the comments before it can publish a final rule.

Sources

• Federal Register, "Optional Practical Training Fees," 91 FR 64566 (proposed rule, 2026-10-08): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/08/2026-20660/optional-practical-training-fees
• DHS press release, 2026-10-07: https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/10/07/dhs-proposes-fees-foreign-student-work-program-protect-american-jobs
• ICE SEVP broadcast BCM 2101-01 (OPT unemployment limits): https://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/bcm2101-01.pdf
• USCIS, Form I-765 (current edition, fees, filing): https://www.uscis.gov/i-765
• Study in the States (SEVP), OPT and STEM OPT hub: https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/
• NAFSA statement on the OPT fee proposed rule, 2026-10-07: https://www.nafsa.org/statement-OPT-fee-proposed-rule

This article explains how the rulemaking process works. It is not legal advice. Take OPT, SEVIS and timing questions to your DSO, and anything involving a change of status, a pending petition or a past status problem to a licensed immigration attorney.

If the fee news has you rethinking your job-search timeline, F1Jobs runs a paid job-search service for OPT and STEM OPT candidates, so we have a stake in this topic. If a structured search would help while the rules settle, talk to F1Jobs.