OPT Extension for US F-1 Visa Engeeniring Students

So this seemed to be a great news at first but now it does not look to be that good. Students who come to US for higher studies get a time of one year after completing their studies to work in US without any visa status change.This period of one year is called Optional Practical Training or OPT.

Students who graduate with degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) will now be allowed 29 months of Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows them to work in the United States at any point during or immediately after their academic career, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced last Friday. This new limit represents a 17-month increase from the 12 months traditionally granted to students on F-1 visas. International alumni who use the entirety of their OPT and wish to continue working in the United States must apply to the H-1B visa program, which is currently oversubscribed, forcing students who do not receive a visa in time to leave the United States.

Restrictions on eligibility
To qualify for the extension, graduates must have both received a STEM degree and be working for a U.S company that is directly associated with one of these areas of study. The hiring company must also be a member of the E-Verify system, which allows the Department of Homeland Security to examine social security data for newly hired employees to ensure that they are legal immigrants. Recent statistics from the Department list 53,614 American companies as members of the system.
“Expanding OPT without expanding real Visa quotas will probably result in even more tears especially when international students have set up home in the US (after being here for about 6 years), and then being forced to exit the country,” Ying (an economics major who is from Australia) explained.
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