Titled H.R. 2315, the Equity for Excessive-Expert Individuals Act, the invoice was reintroduced by Gosar, who argued that OPT “undercuts American employees” and lets “grasping companies rent cheap overseas labour” with out offering advantages.
“By no means licensed by Congress, OPT circumvents the H-1B visa cap set by Congress by permitting over 100,000 aliens admitted into our nation on pupil visas to proceed working in the USA for an additional three years after finishing their educational research,” learn a press release by Gosar.
“The OPT program utterly abandons younger Individuals who’ve spent years and tens of 1000’s of {dollars} pursuing careers in science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic solely to be pushed out of these fields by low-cost foreigners.”
Although the laws has been referred to the Home Committee on the Judiciary, stakeholders have already shut down any risk of it passing the US Home of Representatives sooner or later.
Whereas proposals like this have a tendency to generate headlines, the chance of this invoice advancing in Congress is extraordinarily low
John Evans, Catalyst Gem
“Whereas proposals like this have a tendency to generate headlines, the chance of this invoice advancing in Congress is extraordinarily low,” John Evans, co-founder and CEO, Catalyst Gem, a US-based software program and companies firm specialising in worldwide pupil admissions, informed The PIE Information.
“The final severe try and get rid of OPT got here in 2020 and failed within the face of overwhelming bipartisan, authorized, and financial opposition. Regardless of vital political strain, this system remained totally intact, with none modifications, due to its recognised worth to the US financial system and workforce improvement.”
This isn’t Gosar’s first try to focus on the OPT program. In 2019, he launched related laws and urged its termination by an govt order by President Donald Trump, who was serving his first time period on the time.
Following Gosar’s transfer, WashTech – a union representing STEM employees – additionally took authorized motion, suing the US authorities over its 1992 rule that established the 12-month OPT program and the 2016 regulation which permits eligible STEM graduates to increase OPT by 24 months.
However the concept OPT displaces American employees with worldwide graduates is removed from the reality, based on Evans.
“As of April 2025, the US had 7.6 million job openings, with high-skill sectors reminiscent of tech, healthcare, and engineering dealing with among the biggest shortages,” he defined.
“Trying forward, the US is projected to create 1.1 million new STEM jobs over the subsequent decade and can want a continued pipeline of expertise, together with OPT, to assist this development. Failure to satisfy this demand will weaken the US place within the world financial system, significantly if the expertise is directed elsewhere.”
Regardless of efforts by the Trump administration, which pushed to limit or get rid of OPT underneath the route of then senior advisor to the President, Stephen Miller, the proposed adjustments have been in the end deserted as a result of sturdy opposition from universities, enterprise leaders, and different key teams.
Since then, OPT has remained a essential half in worldwide attraction for US schooling and in 2023, the variety of worldwide college students collaborating in this system rose to 242,782 – a 22% bounce from the yr earlier than.
This surge performed a big position in pushing the general worldwide pupil inhabitants within the nation to a report 1.1 million, with OPT members making up a considerable portion of that whole.
“I don’t see this invoice going wherever because the US wants extra extremely expert employees – each American and in any other case to gasoline an financial system that’s shifting in the direction of doing extra extremely expert work within the US,” acknowledged Mark Kopenski, president and CEO, World Scholar Recruitment Advisors, a consultancy agency dealing with worldwide pupil recruitment and enrolment methods for instructional establishments.
“The (Trump) administration has been bullish on creating paths to everlasting residence for extremely expert and educated people from across the globe. This can take a while as there’s a clearing out of many people which have come to the US illegally and with out expertise, monetary assets and talents that the US needs.”
In keeping with Kopenski, applications just like the “Gold Card Visa” are designed to draw extremely expert expertise and famous that some worldwide college students within the US have already acquired or are planning to accumulate these visas.
Though applications just like the H-1B visa, which permits US employers to quickly rent worldwide employees in specialised fields, have confronted scrutiny throughout Trump’s second time period, the previous president has voiced assist for granting inexperienced playing cards to worldwide faculty graduates.
Nevertheless, no laws has materialised to again this proposal, and as a substitute, worldwide graduates are encountering rising restrictions.
Since Trump’s inauguration in January this yr, tons of of worldwide college students have been detained and seen their visas revoked on US faculty and college campuses, typically with none prior warning.
As per experiences, over 80 US universities have reported visas being revoked for a few of their worldwide college students.
Final month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that over 300 pupil visas had been revoked as a result of actions deemed “towards US nationwide curiosity.”
Specialists counsel the revocations could also be tied to college students’ involvement in pro-Palestine protests or minor authorized infractions, reminiscent of rushing, with some dealing with deportation or being requested to go away the nation.
The transfer has led to condemnation from US educators, who’ve slammed the “alarming” and “deeply disturbing actions” of the Trump administration.
The transfer may probably contribute to an already declining curiosity in learning within the US, as highlighted by a latest survey performed by StudyPortals.
Evans commented: “To rebuild confidence, the US should undertake a extra constant, clear, and student-centred method to worldwide admissions and immigration, just like the streamlined insurance policies seen in Canada, the UK, and Australia. This effort should be strengthened by public messaging and insurance policies that clearly state: ‘You might be welcome right here, and your contributions matter.’”
In the meantime, Kopenski sees this as short-term declining curiosity, set to “appropriate itself because the US strengthens its attractiveness as a vacation spot that gives the final word springboard to wealth and prosperity”.
