The Departments of State and Homeland Security (DoS and DHS) in the United States has announced that effective immediately, the US’s Optional Practical Training programme (OPT) is expanding to allow more international students – in more STEM-related fields of study – to remain in the country for three years after graduation.

International students on F-1 visas at US universities are eligible for OPT, which is a temporary employment opportunity in the applicant’s major area of study. While all international students can apply to receive up to 12 months of OPT employment authorisation before completing their academic studies (pre-completion) and/or after completing their studies (post-completion), the STEM OPT programme permits F-1 students earning bachelors, masters or doctoral degrees in certain fields to remain in the United States for up to 36 months to work in their field of study.

The 22 new fields of study are bioenergy, general forestry, forest resources production and management, human-centred technology design, cloud computing, anthrozoology, climate science, earth systems science, economics and computer science, environmental geosciences, geobiology, geography and environmental studies, mathematical economics, mathematics and atmospheric and oceanic science, general data science, general data analytics, business analytics, data visualization, financial analytics, other data analytics, industrial and organizational psychology, and social sciences, research methodology and quantitative methods.