US bill seeks to end work visa benefit, Indian students among those who may face challenges

International students in the United States, including Indians, could face the risk of having to leave the country after graduation due to a new bill that seeks to end an immigration benefit allowing them to seek temporary employment after completing their studies.

The Optional Practical Training programme for work authorisation allows foreign graduates to work in the United States for up to a year after completing their academic course. Students who pursued science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, are allowed to extend this authorisation for up to two more years.

More than 3.31 lakh students from India were enrolled in various programmes in the United States in 2023-’24, according to a report by Open Doors, an information resource on international students. Over a third of them were eligible for the Optional Practical Training program for work authorisation, Economic Times reported.

The Fairness for High-Skilled Americans Act proposes to end the Optional Practical Training programme, arguing that it “undercuts American workers, particularly higher-skilled workers and recent college graduates, by giving employers a tax incentive to hire inexpensive, foreign labor under the guise of student training”.

NumbersUSA, an advocacy group seeking to lower immigration levels, said that the proposed law, if passed, would “encourage domestic recruitment of our best and brightest”.

“Fewer than half of all STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] graduates find...

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