Student Union
Foreign Students Frustrated by OPT Delays
When Peter, a Muslim student from China, graduated from Texas A&M University in December 2020, he thought he would be working at a Texas consulting firm by early January.
Instead, the international STEM graduate is sitting in his apartment in Houston, waiting for the results of his Optional Practical Training (OPT) application. OPT is a temporary work visa that allows international students to extend their U.S. student visas by 12 to 36 months.
“Normally, it takes two to three weeks to get a receipt [notice] and then… it’s supposed to take about three months, to get an employment authorization document,” immigration Attorney Greg Siskind said in a video interview. “In this case, we were already hitting almost three months without even having a receipt, much less getting a decision on the document.”
Peter was eventually notified that his forms had been received by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS): 116 days after mailing them to a U.S. secure federal facility in Dallas – called a lockbox – that receives forms and applications, and processes payments. Now, he waits up to eight more months for approval.
“I don’t have income while I’m still paying the lease. I don’t have health insurance since I’m technically unemployed. My apartment had a power outage and ran out of hot water because of the massive snowstorm last week,” he told VOA in an online interview. “The waiting period is unknown. And I think in the U.S., if you want the government to fix this problem in a quick manner, you have to sue them.”
On February 16, Peter and 17 other named plaintiffs from China filed a class-action lawsuit against USCIS in the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
The suit demands the agency “open, process and adjudicate applications,” according to their OPTActionLogs website.
Robert Cohen, the case’s lead attorney, said there may be “several thousand” international students who are affected by the OPT delays. The students have been waiting for months, when it only should have taken weeks, he said.
“I’m one of the luckiest because my employer was really considerate and pushed my starting date,” Peter said. “But many people I know have lost their job offer due to the delays and even had to head home.”
USCIS released a formal statement January 8, acknowledging the delays, attributing them to “the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.” It was USCIS’ first public statement since the delays began in October.
On February 26, USCIS posted a second public statement responding to the long delays, giving affected applicants a 14-month OPT period of flexibility and a chance to refile certain rejected applications.
WeChat group fights delays
OPT's temporary employment program allows international students with F-1 visas to work in their major area of study for a total of 12 months before or after graduation. Students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields are eligible for a 24-month OPT extension.
Applicants typically apply up to 90 days before completing their degree by mailing forms to one of USCIS’ lockbox locations: Texas or Arizona. The current delays have affected students applying for post-completion OPT extension; students in the pre-completion OPT program have not experienced delays.
Peter said he noticed in late November that the application receipt waiting period seemed to drag on longer than usual. Finding others in similar situations on 1Point3Acres, a Chinese community forum, he started a WeChat group chat to share their experiences with the ongoing delays. As of February 25, over 600 people had joined.
All student sources in this story have requested anonymity because they said they feared retaliation.
Managing delays
Zhang, a computer science graduate from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, said she has had to ask her manager to push back her work start date twice: first to February 15 and now to March 29.
Li, a STEM OPT extension applicant, said he had lost his job because of the delays. Denied an extension and now jobless, he has since re-applied, hoping for an approval.
Other graduates, while waiting for their employment authorization documents (EAD), worry about their lack of health insurance. Unenrolled and unemployed, many graduates are left without it.
Frustrated at the lack of active solutions from USCIS, Long, a graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island, explained that he has received the same automated responses when he emails USCIS about his delayed OPT status and delays.
USCIS
USCIS initially announced a 45-day to four-month waiting time for OPTs. But Peter said he noticed the USCIS Processing Times website updated on February 22 that an extension to “3-8 months” processing time had been made.
“USCIS has been transparent about the delays in processing and scheduling caused by COVID-19 and other external factors,” the agency stated on February 26.
“The agency has taken numerous steps to help noncitizens address immigration-related challenges during the national [COVID-19 pandemic] emergency; and USCIS will continue to explore flexibility options and stakeholder recommendations to minimize those delays,” it wrote. “The agency recognizes the ongoing impact COVID-19 has had on nonimmigrant students and the noncitizen community as a whole, and USCIS appreciates the understanding it has received over the last year.
Diane Rish, associate director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told VOA in January that “applicants across a wide variety of visa categories are being impacted by these receipt notice delays.” She said the delays were caused by “an uptick in filings” in general because of an anticipated fee increase, an increase in green card filings, and a favorable processing date of October 13 that encouraged another surge.
“Maybe they really run out of people processing,” Long said. “But … we’re forcing them to change by filing the lawsuit because I believe, in America, this is the only way to try to force government agencies to do anything.”
“These [delays] affect our future confidence in studying in the U.S. We first saw that the U.S. was welcoming to all the international students or immigrants from all kinds of backgrounds,” Long said.
Cautiously optimistic
While waiting for their EAD cards and the lawsuit’s result, Zhang and Long have become friends and shared their cautious optimism during the uncertainty.
“At first, I was panicking and afraid of losing my job offer and legal status in the U.S. But then I realized that it’s a massive delay, not just me,” Zhang said as she emphasized the significance of representing the international student community rather than herself. “I just want justice for the students,” she said.
Although attorney Cohen is unsure when the case will be settled, he said he is “confident” that they will reach an agreement with the government.
“We’re hopeful that that will provide relief for all the students and put the students back in the position that they would have been in had they not delayed with the receipts like this,” Cohen said.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters break through barricades to retake MIT encampment
Pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there, as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests.
Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group has been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza.
"Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT's direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense," he said.
Protesters also sat in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, blocking the street during rush hour in the Boston area.
The demonstrations at Columbia have roiled its campus and officials said Monday that while it won't hold it's main ceremony, students will be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next.
The decision comes as universities around the country wrangle with how to handle commencements for students whose high school graduations were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions.
Columbia's decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 saves its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement address in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.
"Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families," officials said.
Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 8 kilometers (5 miles) north at Columbia's sports complex, officials said.
Speakers at some of Columbia's still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.
Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia's green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks.
Similar encampments sprouted up elsewhere as universities struggled with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.
The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony. Students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.
Other universities have held graduation ceremonies with beefed-up security. The University of Michigan's ceremony was interrupted by chanting a few times Saturday. In Boston on Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian or Israeli flags at Northeastern University's commencement in Fenway Park.
Emory's ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, almost 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the university's Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.
"Please know that this decision was not taken lightly," Fenves wrote. "It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors and other agencies — each of which advised against holding commencement events on our campuses."
The 16,000-student university is one of many that has seen repeated protests stemming from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.
Hamas on Monday announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its "core demands" and that it was pushing ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
"Cease-fires are temporary," said Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University sophomore who was taking part in a protest at George Washington. "There can be a cease-fire, but the U.S. government will continue to arm the Israeli military. We plan to be here until the university divests or until they drag us out of here."
At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students.
The University of California, Los Angeles, moved all classes online for the entire week due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of an encampment last week. The university police force reported 44 arrests but there were no specific details, UCLA spokesperson Eddie North-Hager said in an email to The Associated Press.
Schools are trying various tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to get protestors to take down encampments or move to campus areas where demonstrations would be less intrusive.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post Sunday that it offered protesters "amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges" if they moved.
"Many protesters left the premises of their own accord after being notified by the police that they were trespassing and subject to arrest," the school said. "Those that remained were arrested after multiple warnings to leave, including some of whom we recognized as SAIC students."
A group of faculty and staff members at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the administration for amnesty for any students who were arrested and suspended during recent protests. UNC Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a media advisory that it would deliver a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support the student activists.
Other universities took a different approach.
Harvard University's interim president, Alan Garber, warned students that those participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard could face "involuntary leave." That means they would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not be able to take exams, Garber said.
Columbia University cancels main commencement after protests that roiled campus for weeks
Columbia University is canceling its large university-wide commencement ceremony amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests but will hold smaller school-based ceremonies this week and next, the university announced Monday.
"Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus attention on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15," Columbia officials said in a statement.
The protests stem from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.
The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony while allowing other commencement activities to continue.
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Where Are Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests Happening?
Colleges in the U.S. have been rocked by a wave of campus protests calling for an end to the war in Gaza, and for U.S. colleges to divest from Israel.
The Wall Street Journal’s Steven Russolillo rounds up some of the most important ones. (April 2024)
Pro-Palestinian protests in US could impact 2024 election
Despite the fact that many of their encampments at university campuses have been dismantled, pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the United States are standing their ground. If the protests continue, some analysts say they could have an impact on the 2024 presidential election. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains.
