Skip to content
The Daily TeabagThe Daily Teabag

Topic

#H-1B

Massachusetts State House, Boston — Photo: King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0

Policy Watch|United States

DHS proposes a $70,000 fee on schools for each foreign student they recommend for OPT work, and $30,000 for each repeat

A proposed rule from DHS/ICE, published in the Federal Register on 8 October 2026, would charge SEVP-certified schools $70,000 per F-1 student recommended for initial Optional Practical Training and $30,000 for any later OPT, including the STEM extension. DHS says schools may pass the cost on to students, all students, or employers. Comments close 9 November. Nothing changes until a final rule takes effect 60 days after publication.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
California State Capitol, Sacramento — not the Oakland federal courthouse — Photo: Alex Proimos, CC BY 2.0

Accountability|United States

California judge vacates the agency policies behind the $100,000 H-1B payment

On 30 September 2026 Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. vacated the USCIS, CBP, and State Department policies that collected the $100,000 H-1B payment and barred those agencies from enforcing them until they finish notice-and-comment rulemaking and a regulatory-flexibility analysis. The order does not strike Presidential Proclamation 10973 itself. A Massachusetts court had already vacated the same policies; a D.C. court went the other way.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre