Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Businesses Government News IT Technology

Nearly 35,000 Comment On New Federal STEM OPT Extension Rule (computerworld.com) 55

theodp writes: Computerworld reports that the comments are in on the Department of Homeland Security's new proposed rule to extend OPT for international STEM students from 29 months to at least 36 months. The majority of the comments received by DHS support extending the program, CW notes, which is probably not surprising. Rather than choosing to "avoid the appearance of improper influence" by declining to respond to a "We the People" petition protesting a pending U.S. Federal judge's ruling that threatens to eliminate OPT STEM extensions altogether in February, the White House informed the 100k petition signers that they had the President's support, and pointed to the comment site for the proposed DHS OPT STEM rule workaround. Like the "We the People" petitioners, it's unclear whether the DHS commenters might represent corporate, university, and/or student interests, although a word cloud of the top 100 names of commenters (which accounted for 17,000+ comments) hints that international students are well-represented. By the way, in rejecting the 'emergency changes' that were enacted by DHS in 2008 to extend OPT for STEM students without public comment, Judge Ellen Huvelle said, "the 17-month duration of the STEM extension appears to have been adopted directly from the unanimous suggestions by Microsoft and similar industry groups."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Nearly 35,000 Comment On New Federal STEM OPT Extension Rule

Comments Filter:
  • Give STEM students first crack at an H1B visa before any others are approved. Once they get the visa, allow them to freely switch companies of the duration of the visa.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Because STEM students clearly have those rare skills that can only be found in the US? How about we just fix the H1B enforcement

  • "Federal STEM OPT Extension Rule" - what does that mean?

    • As I understand it, it's a federal program for student visas for STEM students. It basically allows foreign students more to get a H-1B visa to work in the US as a tech worker. It's another method of inflating the labor pool in order to keep wages low, in other words.
  • Optional Training Program (OPT)

  • by ThatsNotPudding ( 1045640 ) on Monday November 23, 2015 @01:17PM (#50986765)
    Funny how there is such fanatic concern about vetting refugees (even 24 months is too short for some), but when it comes to indentured servants yielding greater corporate profits, FAST TRACK AND EXTEND.

When you are working hard, get up and retch every so often.

Working...