cset.georgetown.edu | cset@georgetown.edu
SUBJECT: Optional Practical Training
FROM: Zachary Arnold and Remco Zwetsloot
BACKGROUND
● Optional Practical Training (OPT) allows international students to work in the United States for one year (all
students) or three years (STEM students) after graduating.
● Some legislators and federal officials have advocated suspending OPT in response to the COVID-19 crisis
and its economic impacts.
KEY POINTS
● Skilled immigrants make critical contributions to America’s economy, and international students are an
important source of immigrant talent.
○ Studies show that high-skilled immigrants increase native-born workers’ wages, create jobs, and boost
innovation and productivity.
○ Tech companies founded by former international students, such as SpaceX and Cloudflare, employ tens
of thousands of Americans and directly contribute to U.S. national security and military capability.
○ According to CSET analysis, 68% of America’s top 50 artificial intelligence (AI) startups were founded
or co-founded by immigrants, most of whom arrived as students.
● OPT participants do not “crowd out” native-born Americans.
○ In the high-tech sector, which employs most OPT holders, the available evidence suggests that relatively
few Americans are out of work. In May 2020, the unemployment rate in computing occupations was
2.5%, a decrease from pre-COVID levels of 3%.
○ Economists find that “there is no evidence that foreign students participating in [OPT] reduce job
opportunities for U.S. workers.” In strategic fields like AI, there is significant evidence that U.S.
employers need many more skilled workers than the native-born population can supply.
○ Federal and state initiatives to train native-born workers for STEM jobs are important and should be
expanded, but will take years to have a significant effect in industries where OPT is currently used.
Suspending OPT in the meantime would cause U.S. employers to lose tens of thousands of skilled
employees, causing immediate harm to the economy and supply chain security.
● Canceling OPT will directly benefit China’s technology ambitions.
○ Chinese technology strategists say U.S. immigration restrictions give China critical opportunities “to
bolster its ranks of high-end talent.”
● Currently, OPT is often the only way for America to retain skilled immigrants.
○ Green cards and better-known visas, such as H-1B visas, are numerically capped at low levels (set in
1990) and are difficult to get. Because of this, many American employers must use OPT to recruit
needed talent.
○ Chip maker Intel says that “without OPT, we would be able to hire just 30 percent of the highly skilled
graduates we currently hire.” Suspending or eliminating OPT will cause labor shortages that undermine
plans to manufacture more advanced semiconductors in the United States.
○ In a May 2020 letter, 324 American companies and business organizations emphasized that restricting
OPT would endanger U.S. economic recovery and native-born employment.
RECOMMENDATION
● On balance, suspending OPT would not benefit native-born Americans affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
Rather, it would very likely destroy more jobs for native-born citizens than it creates, and undermine
innovation and supply chain security.
