On Friday, Intel joined FWD.us and 60 organizations and companies on an amicus brief in support of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) Program. OPT allows international students who graduate from a U.S. university to continue their training in the U.S for up to one year, providing real-world experience and an opportunity for STEM students to contribute their skills and education in the U.S. for an additional two years under a program called STEM OPT.The amicus brief reaffirms the importance of the OPT and STEM OPT programs to U.S. employers, international students, and the business community as a whole. OPT and STEM OPT benefit the U.S. economy, businesses, and workers by educating and retaining high skilled talent in the U.S. especially in critical STEM areas where the U.S. experience a shortage of U.S. workers. This high skilled talent contributes to U.S. business growth, fuels innovation, and creates jobs for U.S. workers.
As a world leader in the design and manufacturing of semiconductors and other essential technologies, we rely on the U.S. employment-based immigration system to fill critical roles that require advanced education, skills and expertise and for which we experience a shortage of qualified U.S. workers. OTP and STEP OPT are critical programs for the U.S. to retain high-skilled talent graduating from U.S. universities, and help fill critical STEM roles. According to the Business Roundtable, curbing OPT could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs for U.S.-born workers, while also shrinking wages, reducing GDP, and slowing innovation and business creation.
Intel is supports OPT and urges the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the lower court decision upholding the lawfulness of the Optional Practical Training.