Will Your University Pay the Proposed OPT Fee? What Schools Have Said So Far and What to Ask Yours

Your school, not you, would be the legal payer of the proposed $70,000 OPT fee, but it could pass the cost on. Here is what schools have said so far and what to ask yours.

Part of our guide to the proposed OPT fee.

Will universities pay the OPT fee? As of November 1, 2026, nobody can tell you, because the fee is only proposed. The DHS proposal published October 8, 2026 would make your SEVP-certified school the legal payer of $70,000 before your first OPT recommendation and $30,000 before each later one, including STEM OPT. It also lets schools pass that cost to F-1 students, to all students or to employers. None of the school notices we reviewed says which route that school would take.

Status as of 2026-11-01:

• Proposed, not in effect: "Optional Practical Training Fees," 91 FR 64566, docket ICEB-2026-0100, which would add 8 CFR 214.13(i). There is no effective date and no fee is collected.
• Comments open until 2026-11-09, 11:59 p.m. ET on the Federal Register docket (more than 4,700 as of 2026-11-01). After that, the rule stays a proposal until DHS publishes a final rule.
• Unchanged today: OPT applicants file Form I-765 at the current fee, $520 on paper or $470 online, with optional $1,780 premium processing, per the USCIS G-1055 fee schedule (edition 10/26/26).
• Not scheduled: a final rule. None was under White House (OIRA) review as of 2026-11-01. Under the proposed text, one would reach only DSO recommendations dated 60 or more days after its publication.

Will universities pay the OPT fee? The short answer

Under the proposed OPT fee rule, your university, not you, would pay DHS, but it would not have to absorb the cost. DHS says schools may pass it to F-1 students, all students or employers, and proposes no specific limits on how they raise the money. As of November 1, 2026, none of the school notices we reviewed says what that school would do.

So "my school will pay" and "I will be billed" are both premature. First DHS must publish a final rule that keeps the school-pays structure and amounts (it can change both after comments), and then your school must decide how to fund it. For the rule text itself, see our explainer on who legally pays the proposed $70,000 OPT fee.

What the proposed rule lets a school do

Proposed 8 CFR 214.13(i) requires the school to pay before the DSO recommends you, and the preamble is blunt: "To be clear, no DSO would be able to enter an OPT recommendation without the school having paid the applicable fee."

On where the money comes from, the NPRM text on govinfo.gov is deliberately open:

"this proposed fee rule does not propose the imposition of specific limitations or restrictions on how the schools should collect or source the requisite funds to make the fee payments for each student engaged in OPT, to the extent that the school complies with all other applicable laws, including reporting foreign gifts and contracts under 20 U.S.C. 1011f."

Read together, the text and preamble leave a school five routes.

A school's options under the proposed OPT fee rule (as of 2026-11)

A school could also combine them, for example paying the initial fee itself and seeking employer funding for STEM OPT (our reading).

Can a school pass the OPT fee on to students?

Yes, under the proposal. DHS "acknowledges that the schools may pass the financial obligation of this proposed fee onto F-1 nonimmigrant students, all students, or employers," and says passing it to students or employers "would further discourage misuse of OPT." Duke Visa Services told its students that "If passed as proposed the rule will mandate that the university and not the student pay the fee." That is right about who pays DHS. Whether the university then recovers the money from you is a separate choice the rule leaves to each school.

Can an employer pay the OPT fee?

Not as the payer of record. The school pays DHS (employers pay no OPT fee today), but a school could pass the cost to employers or accept an employer's contribution. Timing is the obstacle. The fee would be due before your DSO enters the recommendation, which comes before you file the I-765, and post-completion OPT needs no job offer, so many students apply without one (our reading). STEM OPT is different: an employer already signs your Form I-983 training plan, so employer funding of the $30,000 is easier to picture. See whether employers will stop hiring OPT students and how to explain the fee to a recruiter.

Could a school decline to pay for some students?

The preamble says: "DSOs are not required to recommend F-1 nonimmigrants for OPT and can elect not to pay the fee for a particular F-1 nonimmigrant who is not a strong candidate for OPT or whose participation in OPT could adversely affect the integrity of the program." If a final rule kept that language, a school could set criteria for whose fee it covers (our reading). No school we reviewed has described any, so put it on your question list.

What universities have said about the OPT fee so far

Public statements on the proposed OPT fee (as of 2026-11-01)

The pattern is consistent: each school notice says the fee is only proposed, tells students to keep following current OPT rules, and is silent on whether that school would pay. That silence is not surprising. As Duke puts it, "The final rule, if enacted, may differ from this proposed rule," so a school would be budgeting for a fee that could still change.

School size may matter too: DHS's small-entity analysis concedes that some small institutions "may be unable to secure such funding," so a small college and a large research university could decide very differently (our reading).

Why your school's choice matters: what students told IFP

The Institute for Progress surveyed current and former F-1 students and published the results on October 6, 2026, two days before the NPRM, so respondents reacted to IFP's own descriptions of the fees. Of 683 respondents currently in F-1 status, 79% said they would likely try to stay in the US under current rules. If the student, school or employer could pay the fees, that fell to 15%; if only schools could pay, it was 47%, a 32-point gap (our arithmetic). IFP suggests respondents may have read the first version as a fee they would most likely pay themselves.

Treat these with care: the sample is non-random and unweighted (n=734), drawn through science societies and campus groups, and 42% are in or recently finished a PhD, so it does not describe all international students.

When the fee could reach you: a worked timeline

The fee is tied to the date on your DSO's recommendation, not your graduation date. Under proposed 8 CFR 214.13(i)(3), it applies to recommendations "dated on or after" the 60th day after a final rule is published.

OPT fee timeline (as of 2026-11-01)

Counting from that unknown day 0:

• A recommendation dated before day 60 would fall outside the fee, even if the final rule had already been published.
• A student already on approved OPT keeps that OPT fee-free. A later STEM OPT recommendation dated on or after day 60 could be covered, but the proposal does not settle whether that student would owe $30,000 or $70,000. Our STEM OPT fee scenarios work through each case, including the NPRM's $100,000 example, a combined total for OPT plus STEM OPT, not a separate fee.
• A bachelor's OPT user starting a master's: the proposed text charges $70,000 "the first time" a student is recommended. DHS "considered ... having the one-time initial fee of $70,000 apply again to any initial period of OPT following the F-1 student's change to a higher educational level" and "especially encourages input" on it, but that is an alternative, not the proposed text. UT Dallas's FAQ describes the fee as resetting at a higher degree level; if your school's notice says the same, ask which text it relies on. See whether the fee could be charged twice.

Day 0 has no date, and this is not a forecast. Track your recommendation date and your school's funding decision.

What to ask your international office about the fee

Your DSO cannot promise anything about a proposed rule, so ask what the office knows, what it is doing and how it will tell you.

About the school's position

• Has the university filed, or does it plan to file, a comment on docket ICEB-2026-0100?
• If a final rule keeps the school-pays structure, who on campus would decide how it is funded (absorbed, billed to the student, spread across all students or sought from employers)?
• Would every eligible student still receive a recommendation, or could the school decide case by case?

About your timeline

• Given my program end date, roughly when would my recommendation be dated?
• If I am on OPT now and may apply for STEM OPT later, how would the office expect a later recommendation to be treated?

About money

• If the school ever billed students, would the charge come before the recommendation, and what would happen if USCIS denied my I-765?
• Under the proposal, SEVP could refund a school case by case only before the EAD is issued, never after, and the DSO must first remove the recommendation in SEVIS. Would any refund reach me?

How to get a clear answer

1. Find your international office's OPT-fee notice; the schools we reviewed posted theirs on October 9-12, 2026.
2. Email your DSO the questions above, with your program end date and the OPT type you expect to request, and ask for a written reply.
3. Ask your career services office whether it is talking to employers about the proposal.
4. Comment, if you choose to, on the Federal Register page for docket ICEB-2026-0100 by 11:59 p.m. ET on November 9, 2026. Our November 2026 comment-deadline guide covers the mechanics; UT Dallas notes anyone may comment, "as an individual or anonymously."
5. Re-check the Federal Register after November 9, 2026. The comment period will have closed and the rule will still be a proposal; only a published final rule starts the 60-day clock.

Your DSO is the right person for OPT timing and SEVIS recommendations; a licensed immigration attorney is the right person for status strategy beyond OPT.

Common mistakes

• Assuming your school has promised to pay. None of the notices we reviewed makes that promise.
• Assuming you will be billed $70,000. The school is the legal payer under the proposal, and no school we reviewed has announced passing it on.
• Trusting "$30,000 for the second year." SEVP's BCM 2610-02 says that; the Federal Register text charges $30,000 before each later recommendation, and the rule text controls.
• Telling an employer it would owe the fee. The proposal charges schools. An employer could only contribute through a school's own arrangement.
• Tracking your graduation date instead of your recommendation date. The fee would turn on the date your DSO enters the recommendation.

Frequently asked questions

Will my university pay the $70,000 OPT fee?

No one can say yet. As of November 1, 2026, the fee is only a proposed DHS rule, and none of the school notices we reviewed says whether that school would absorb it or pass it on. Under the proposed text, your school would pay DHS before your recommendation and could recover the cost from students or employers.

Can a school pass the OPT fee on to students?

Under the proposal published October 8, 2026, yes. DHS says schools may pass the cost to F-1 students, all students or employers, and proposes no specific limits on how they raise the money as long as they follow other applicable laws. Each school would decide for itself, and no final rule exists yet.

Can an employer pay the OPT fee?

Not as the payer of record. Under the proposed text the school pays DHS, but it may pass the cost to employers or accept their contributions. Because the fee would be due before the DSO recommendation, employer funding looks most workable for STEM OPT, where an employer is already identified (our reading).

What have universities said about the OPT fee?

As of November 1, 2026, the school notices we reviewed stress that the fee is only proposed, and none says whether that school would pay. UT Dallas said the proposal does not affect current OPT plans, Duke told students in their filing window to apply as soon as possible, and the University of Washington is coordinating an institutional response. APLU called the fees "exorbitant"; NAFSA has comment resources.

What should I ask my international office about the fee?

Ask whether the school will comment, who would decide how a fee is funded, whether every eligible student would still be recommended, and how a trigger 60 days after any final rule fits your recommendation date. Ask for a written reply; your DSO cannot promise anything about a proposed rule.

Sources

• DHS/ICE, "Optional Practical Training Fees," proposed rule, 91 FR 64566 (2026-10-08): Federal Register and full text on govinfo.gov
• SEVP, Broadcast Message 2610-02 (2026-10-08)
• USCIS, Form G-1055 fee schedule (edition 10/26/26)
• University of Washington ISS, DHS Proposes New OPT Fees (2026-10-09)
• UT Dallas ISSO, FAQ on the proposed OPT fee rule (2026-10-12)
• Duke Visa Services, OPT Fee Proposed Rule (2026-10-12)
• APLU, Response to Proposed Changes to Optional Practical Training (2026-10-14)
• NAFSA, Resources for proposed OPT fees comments
• Institute for Progress, International Student Survey on OPT and Experiential Learning (2026-10-06)

How we checked this: on November 1, 2026 we read the NPRM's preamble and regulatory text on govinfo.gov, the Federal Register record, BCM 2610-02, the G-1055 page, the three university notices, the APLU and NAFSA pages and the IFP report, and checked every quotation against its source.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Your own I-20, your DSO and, for status strategy, a licensed immigration attorney govern your situation.

If you would like help building a job search that works whichever way your school decides, talk to F1Jobs.