STEM OPT in 2025: A year of scrutiny, survival, and shrinking certainty
You probably heard the whispers in your university hallways this year. Optional Practical Training wasn’t just another work programme anymore—it became something students worried about constantly. The programme that lets international graduates work in the US for up to 12 months, with an extra 24 months for STEM students, turned into a political battleground where your future hung in the balance.The numbers tell you just how serious this got. According to the American Council on Education, roughly 21.5% of all international students in the US were participating in OPT in 2025. That’s one in five students whose careers depended on this programme surviving the year. More than 240,000 foreign graduates were working through OPT, as ICEF Monitor reported in May 2025, making it the single biggest pipeline for high-skilled, university-educated immigrants.Crackdown on fake jobs hits thousandsThe government came down hard on fraud this year. US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced plans to revoke or refuse to renew 1,100 OPT work permits as part of anti-fraud efforts, according to the Herman Legal Group. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation OPTical Illusion in January 2025, arresting 15 students who’d claimed employment with companies that didn’t exist.The enforcement wasn’t random. Authorities used artificial intelligence and data-matching systems to flag suspicious employment patterns. ICE started conducting work site visits to verify that companies were actually providing legitimate training related to students’ majors. Shell companies with no websites, disconnected phone numbers, and business addresses at residential homes got exposed. Some disappeared overnight—CG Max Design dissolved its company on June 12, 2025, and CloudParticle folded six days after federal agents arrested the CEO of another suspicious firm, NBC Bay Area had previously documented.Students got caught in the crossfire. Many had unknowingly paid between $800 and $2,000 to fraudulent consultancies promising OPT compliance, according to M9 News in September 2025. One Houston IT firm got indicted for charging up to $2,000 per student for fake employment letters. The scams followed the same template—they pretended to be real OPT employers, offered unpaid work, charged placement fees, and provided nothing but verification letters.Political threats made the future uncertainTop officials didn’t hide their intentions. Joseph Edlow, nominated to lead USCIS, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 21, 2025, that OPT had been misapplied over the past four years. He promised to end post-graduation OPT before even stepping into his role, according to Forbes and the American Council on Education. Senator Tom Cotton introduced the OPT Fair Tax Act in October 2025, proposing to end tax exemptions that saved students and employers about 8% on wages.The proposed legislation would subject international students to Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes, which fund social security and healthcare benefits they can’t access. Multiple Republican senators attempted to abolish the programme entirely, whilst Senator Chuck Grassley called on the Department of Homeland Security to terminate the workstream. The rhetoric framed OPT as taking jobs from Americans, even though the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that restricting high-skilled immigration actually reduces opportunities for both less-educated and more-educated American workers.Economic impact got ignored in political debatesInternational students contributed more than $42.9 billion to the US economy during the 2024–2025 academic year and supported over 355,000 American jobs, according to Shorelight. Research by the Peterson Institute showed that foreign graduates of US universities cause major increases in innovation and patenting. Roughly one-third of OPT recipients later transition to H-1B skilled work visas.When OPT was expanded in the past, patenting in heavily affected US metropolitan areas increased significantly compared to areas with fewer international students. The programme filled critical skills gaps in STEM fields that the domestic workforce couldn’t address alone. But the economic arguments got drowned out by political pressure.Students changed their plansThe uncertainty forced international students to reconsider the US entirely. Research by Shorelight showed that most students now view OPT as non-negotiable when choosing where to study. Without guarantees of practical training, many indicated they’d simply pick another country. Recent enrolment declines suggested the US was already losing market share in international education.Universities scrambled to help students navigate the chaos. Berkeley International Office warned that ICE was applying increased scrutiny to OPT and STEM OPT programmes, resulting in enforcement actions against students with fraudulent employment. The office recommended students work at least 20 hours per week in clearly full-time positions to avoid extra scrutiny. Jobs under 20 hours per week counted toward the 90-day unemployment limit, and exceeding that limit meant automatic status violation.The programme survived but stayed fragileOPT remained active through the year. Students could still apply for the standard 12-month period and the 24-month STEM extension. But approval became much harder. USCIS denied applications with vague job descriptions or duties unrelated to students’ majors. Site visits became more common to verify actual work was being performed. The government validated STEM degrees more carefully and checked employer compliance more thoroughly.The Department of Homeland Security even created a Fraud Hub to train school officials on recognising and reporting fraudulent activity. Schools faced losing their certification to accept international students if they didn’t comply with regulations. Every aspect of OPT—from job descriptions to training plans to employer legitimacy—got put under a microscope.By December 2025, you couldn’t ignore the message. OPT hadn’t disappeared, but the path from international student to American worker had become narrower, riskier, and far less certain than it was 12 months earlier.
