I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

Re:I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for... by brianbreslin on Friday July 28, 2023 @12:27PM (#36909314)

How can startups more effectively use the OPT program? (I work at a university) I see a lot of graduating international students who would love to stay in the US post graduation and work at startups but navigating that seems difficult for startups.

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Re:I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for... by morpheuskafka on Friday July 28, 2023 @12:47PM (#36909648)

Isn't OPT quite simple for the employer compared to H1-B, etc.?

For the basic OPT, you don't really do any paperwork--the school and student do some paperwork and obtain an EAD that you use for the I-9 form.

For the STEM OPT extension, you have to be participating in E-Verify (required in many states anyway), and fill out a training plan for the two years: https://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/i983.pdf

I think the bigger issue is continuity--employers that plan to convert these to other visa types for continue employment will need to be planning for that from the beginning to avoid interruptions.

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Re:I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for... by proberts on Friday July 28, 2023 @01:30PM (#36910273)

All correct. It's easy to employ those in F-1 OPT and STEM OPT status. And the size or newness of the company has no bearing on the company's ability to employ those in F-1 OPT and STEM OPT status. The main additional requirement is e-verify for companies wanting to employ those is F-1 STEM OPT status. But this isn't a burdensome requirement at all.

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