Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has released new policy guidance requiring further investigation by Designated School Officials (“DSOs”) of whether they are of work under an OPT or STEM OPT work authorization relates to the area of study in the student’s degree field.

The F-1 student must now provide additional information – either entered directly to the SEVIS portal by the student or provided to the DSO for entry – explaining the relationship of job to field of study.  The DSO is given the option by this guidance to use very general instructions for “crosswalking” the field as described to a Department of Labor-recognized guide.

The new guidance may result in an environment where a student and a DSO may create a trail of evidence over which an employer has little or no control, and so statements made by the employer may be deemed inconsistent with information in the SEVIS system – perhaps because “crosswalking” a job to a DOL title is an inexact science at best  This may result in penalties for employers, or a student being found out of status (and so having a request to change status, perhaps as part of a cap H-1B filing, denied)  It may also result in outright denial of a future H-1B, as a job title may be used for which USCIS doesn’t recognize that a Bachelor’s degree is required.