The Department of Homeland Security proposed a $70,000 fee Wednesday for each foreign student seeking to participate in the Optional Practical Training program, a federal program that allows students on F-1 visas to work temporarily in jobs related to their fields of study.

DHS said the proposed fee is intended to address fraud and abuse within the program while ensuring that foreign student employment does not become a source of cheap labor at the expense of American workers.

The proposal would also impose a $30,000 fee for each subsequent period of optional practical training. Under current rules, eligible foreign students can receive up to 12 months of OPT at each education level, while graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields can qualify for an additional 24 months.

Under the proposed rule, schools certified to host foreign students would be responsible for paying the $70,000 fee before recommending a student for OPT. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would not approve employment authorization for students whose schools had failed to pay the required fee.

DHS officials said the changes are intended to make schools more selective about which students they recommend for the program and to discourage fraudulent arrangements designed primarily to keep foreign students in the United States.

"Optional practical training was never meant to be a back door into the American workforce, a subsidy for cheap labor, or a prize for those who game the system," a DHS spokesperson said. "DHS is upskilling OPT to require foreign students to justify their worth to employers."

The department said its investigations have uncovered problematic worksites and "pay-to-stay" visa arrangements involving foreign students and their employers.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the program has been "flooded with participants seeking to exploit the program for improper purposes."

In one case cited by DHS, a Chinese businesswoman allegedly sold fraudulent employment verification documents that allowed Chinese students to enroll in OPT. One individual who received assistance was later convicted of acting as an agent of the Chinese government.

ICE investigations into purported OPT employers have also uncovered shell companies, arrangements in which employers allegedly sent foreign students to work for third-party companies and evidence of international financial fraud, according to DHS.

The scale of the program has grown substantially in recent years. More than 165,000 foreign students were working in science, technology and engineering positions through OPT in 2024, according to figures cited by The Washington Times. That number was nearly twice the number of workers admitted through the H-1B guest-worker visa program that year.

DHS said the proposed fees would help cover the cost of operating and policing the program while creating additional incentives for schools and employers to comply with federal requirements.

Mullin warned that without the proposed fees, DHS may not be able to continue operating OPT under the department's current anti-fraud standards.

"DHS notes that without the fees proposed in this rule, it cannot operate OPT consistent with its focus on preventing fraud and may shut down the program entirely," Mullin said.

The proposal is not yet final. DHS will accept public comments on the rule from Oct. 8 through Nov. 9 before deciding whether to implement the new requirements.