Okay, I wanted to elaborate on this today since lot of you were thinking that is was an April fool's message when I posted this yesterday! But this NOT an April fool joke!!!

- The Homeland Security Department asked the White House OMB on March 31, 2008 to clear the interim final rule to publish in the federal register to extend OPT for 17 months. This is an interim final rule and as soon as it is published it will take effect. This means that the OPT period will be 29 months for certain F-1 students in OPT: current 12 plus 17 month extension.

- Those currently seeking H-1B may not be able to participate in the FY 2009 H-1B cap filing. However, since their OPT is likely to be extended for 17 months, they will have a sufficient time to participate in FY 2010 H-1B cap petitions. The details have to be announced as to who will be the "qualified" OPT students to take advantage of this upcoming OPT extension rule.

- There is a regulation even at this time that gives an authority for the Homeland Security Secretary to exercise a discretion, if the Secretary chooses to do so, and consider the OPT students "in lawful stay period" up through October 1 if the OPT files the H-1B petition before the cap is reached and while their F-1 status remained in status including 60-day grace period. However, this new policy is a juicier and more flexible option for the OPT students....  I will confirm on this one!

- This rule is the product of the persistent lobbying efforts by the business leaders and their lobby group. Bill Gates deserves a good credit for this good news. These business leaders pressured the Senate leaders at the end of last year to take action by the Homeland Security Department Secretary. It was Senator Norm Coleman's legislative bill to increase the OPT to 29 months. The magic "29-month" OPT proposal in these business leaders' idea is intended to allow the OPT students not to face the deadly H-1B cap filing problems on April 1 in the future, which has given the OPTs a tremendous hardship, both emotionally and physically. Hats-off to the business leaders including higher learning institution leaders.

I will post more details once available but for now let's keep our fingers crossed & stay tuned!