According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement of DHS has sent an interim final rule to the Office of Management and Budget that would expand from 12 to 17 months the period of time "qualified" F-1 students can have for optional practical training. This is really very important news since it will effectively solve the "gap" problem for F-1 students converting to H-1B visas. F-1 optional practical training typically ends in early summer and H-1B start dates for cap-subject cases cannot begin until October 1st. This extra five months will bridge the gap by allowing students to continue working on OPT past October 1st. No word on whether this will affect cases filed this year and the text of the interim final rule is not available at the time of this posting. However we will report to our readers as soono as it is available.

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