Recording of June 23, 2022, Free US Immigration Community Conference Call with Rajiv (Every Other Thursday)
Nonimmigrant Visas
Green Card
Discussion Topics:
Search
17-Month STEM CAP GAP OPT Extension Voided by Court
24 December 2015
DHS has asked for an additional extension of stay to 10 May 2016 of the court order under which the STEM extension of OPT was invalidated by the DC federal court. DHS needs time to review appx. 50,500 comments they have received on the new proposed regulations. I am moving the new discussion to this link: http://www.immigration.com/blogs/new-rules-17-month-stem-extension-ongoing-updates-until-completed
17-Month STEM CAP GAP OPT Extension Voided by Court
A Washington DC Federal court has held that DHS improperly promulgated the 2008 regulations creating the 17-month OPT CAP GAP extension for STEM graduates (strictly speaking, this is not reallly "CAP GAP" issue). According to the court, DHS should have placed the proposed regulation before the public, allowed everyone to comment, considered the comments and then published the final regulation. Thus, DHS violated the procedural mandate requiring "notice and comment." According to the court, there was no good reason to skip the "notice and comment" mandate.