RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – A new report from Pew Research finds that more foreign graduate students are gaining access to the U.S. than foreign workers receiving H-1B visas – long a controversial subject about workforce trends in the US.
“Between 2004 and 2016, the number of foreign student graduates who were approved for the OPT program rivaled the number of high-skilled workers initially approved for the nation’s largest temporary employment visa program, also known as the H-1B visa,” Pew reported earlier this week.
Data was based on a Freedom of Information Act request received from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and publicly available data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Through the Optional Practical Training program, Pew reports, “nearly 1.5 million foreign graduates of U.S. colleges and universities obtained authorization to remain and work in the U.S.”
Of these, more than half specialize in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
OPT approvals totalled 1,474,000; H-1B visas totaled 1,473,000.
More coverage:
Report: Big jump in job program for foreign graduates of US colleges
The OPT skill breakdown
According to Pew, the top fields of study among OPT participants with doctorates were:
- engineering (34%)
- physical sciences (16%)
- biological and biomedical sciences (13%)
Foreign graduates with master’s degrees concentrated in the areas of:
- engineering (27%)
- computer and information sciences and support services (22%)
- business, management, marketing, and support services (22%)
OPT enrollees with bachelor’s degrees most often completed majors in:
- business, management, marketing, and support services (32%)
- engineering (12%)
- social sciences (9%)
Program differences
Pew points out that there are differences in the programs.
“While both programs give foreign workers temporary employment authorization in the U.S., they are different in a number of ways. For instance, only foreign students on an F-1 visa with a higher education degree from a U.S. college or university are eligible for the OPT program, whereas any foreign worker with a degree that is equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree or higher is permitted to apply for the H-1B visa. Also, unlike the H-1B visa program, which imposes an annual cap of 65,000 visas to private companies sponsoring foreign workers, there is no cap on the number of approvals available under the OPT program; all F-1 visa holders are eligible to apply. Furthermore, foreign students do not require employer sponsorship to apply for OPT, while the H-1B visa program requires employers to directly sponsor the foreign workers they intend to hire.“
However, there are no guarantees, Pew reported:
“Transitioning to the H-1B visa is one of the pathways that foreign graduates can pursue to stay in the U.S. once their OPT period expires. However, there is no guarantee that H-1B visas will be available for employers who want to sponsor foreign graduates working under OPT. In recent years, the number of applications for this visa program has exceeded its annual cap, and a lottery system was put in place to award the visas.”
But, the report adds, “those who hold advanced degrees (master’s, professional or doctorate) in any subject from a U.S. higher educational institution have a greater chance of getting approved for an H-1B visa, since an additional 20,000 visas are set aside for this group every year. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of previously obtained H-1B visa data from a separate public records request from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, nearly 14%, or 118,000, of all capped H-1B visas approved between fiscal 2010 and 2016 were given to advanced degree graduates of U.S. universities.
