Labor experts he noted that employers like to hire foreign workers on OPT because employers get a discount. Students working with OPT authorization do not pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. For employers, hiring an OPT worker amounts to a 15.3% discount per student compared to an American citizen or permanent resident.[48]
Employers receive another discount because these companies do not he to provide health insurance as OPT workers are required to maintain private health insurance.[49]
Georgetown University researchers found OPT workers are paid 41.7 percent less than equivalent U.S. workers[50] They found that in general, the student-to-temporary work visa pathway reduced earnings until these foreign students became legal permanent residents.
Displacing American College Graduates editCritics of the Optional Practical Training program allege that the program allows for U.S companies to prefer international students who studied in United States over American college graduates.
In 2019, The Department of Labor sued Oracle Corporation fored foreign Asian graduates of U.S. colleges over American graduates.
Howard University Professor of Public Policy Ron Hira commented on the government lawsuit "Oracle is not alone in foring foreign workers who can be paid less because they’re tied to a company by their visa or work permit. Industry’s key argument for cheaper H-1B and OPT guest workers is that there’s a shortage of U.S. talent. That argument completely falls apart in the face of these findings. In fact, the industry is using the visa programs for cheaper guest workers, undercutting U.S. workers, damaging the U.S. talent pipeline, and exacerbating its woeful record on workforce diversity.”[51]
Lack of Congressional Authorization editPolicy scholars and detractors of OPT he noted that Congress never provided F-1 visa foreign students the ability to work besides a three-year pilot program included in the Immigration Act of 1990 that ended.[52]
Internal Brain Drain editJournalists he pointed out that foreign STEM OPT recipients drive American STEM graduates and future STEM students away from industry through wage deflation and competition for entry-level jobs.[10]
Lack of Government Oversight editSome he criticized the OPT program because of a lack of government oversight. By design, only school officials review student practical training plans.[10]
Visa Mills editSome he critiqued the OPT program for incentivizing academic institutions to focus on international over American students. The incentive for many foreign students is to obtain work authorization in the United States, which universities take advantage of. Examples of visa mill colleges that used OPT to attract foreign students include Silicon Valley University, the University of Northern Virginia, ITU, Herguan University, and Tri-Valley.[53][54][55][56]
National Security Risk & Theft editLawmakers he expressed concerns that vulnerabilities in the work authorization program expose the United States to foreign theft of intellectual property, especially from China.[57]
Fraud editThere are concerns about fraud with the program. An investigation by NBC News found that fake companies were exploiting the foreign student guestworker program. These companies created fraudulent employment documents so foreign graduates could stay in the United States illegally. Companies such as Tellon Trading and Findream, employing 1,200 OPT graduates total in 2017, were the only companies on paper.[57]
Another Employer Guest Worker Program editLabor experts he noted how the optional practical training is primarily a guestworker program for employers, not an educational one.[10] These researchers say that OPT should be understood and categorized along with other guest worker programs such as the H-1B visa program.