Andres Pulido, a recent graduate of the University of Florida, applied in October for optional practical training—the work authorization available to international students after they graduate—for a job working on self-driving cars that he was slated to start in February. He is still waiting for the authorization to come through. In the meantime, he has missed out on several months of planned income; he even made the journey by car from Florida to California’s Bay Area for the position, but moved back once it became clear he wouldn’t get his OPT in time.

Pulido is a native of Venezuela, one of the 40 countries and territories on the Trump administration’s travel ban list. In memos released in late 2025 and early 2026, the government expanded the reach of the travel ban to pause the processing of applications for immigration benefits, including OPT, for individuals from those countries; they could still apply, but their applications wouldn’t be reviewed. The pause was intended to last only until U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had implemented new guidelines for vetting applications from those countries. But four months later, processing still hasn’t resumed, leaving a large number of F-1 visa holders like Pulido in limbo. Experts say no guidance has been released.

Pulido told Inside Higher Ed he lives with his wife, a current Ph.D. student, which has made the situation slightly easier because she is earning some income. Still, his lack of a job has taken a major toll on their finances. As a result, he has made the difficult choice to start applying to positions in other countries.

“I had to completely change my life once 10 years ago, and I built it here. I have family from Venezuela that are here, and all my friends are here. My career is here, my actual job is here, my network of professionals [is] here,” he said. “It was not easy, but it was a very cold, calculated decision of, ‘I cannot live. I need to support myself. Nobody else is going to feed me. So, I need to be able to rely on myself and be able to support myself.’

“It was sad, of course, that [in] a country that I do consider to be a champion [of immigration] … I get the feeling that some specific populations just don’t want us here.”

The Cato Institute estimates that about two million total petitions are impacted, including one million applications for work authorization. But experts say there has been no indication from USCIS about when applications will be reviewed again, forcing students like Pulido to make difficult decisions.

“International students from those countries who had been waiting to get their OPT processed [don’t have] a clear pathway forward,” said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. “So, it’s not a ban, but it’s still kind of in the adjudication black hole. Students don’t know whether it’s just a matter of waiting longer.”

She fears that the pause may be part of the Trump administration’s larger plans to do away with OPT.

“This current administration has been signaling very clearly that they’re seeking to end postgraduate optional practical training. The former secretary of homeland security, the current secretary of homeland security, Republican senators have all been kind of waving the specter that there will be a proposed rule to end OPT,” said Feldblum.

In a statement to Inside Higher Ed, USCIS wrote, “Verifying identities and personal histories of aliens from various countries requires a rigorous process—one that prioritizes the safety of the American people. USCIS has paused adjudications for aliens from President Trump’s designated high-risk countries while we work to ensure they are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

But the language USCIS has used to discuss the pause with other news outlets has strayed away from the national security narrative to describe OPT as something that is “undermining” American workers.

Far-Reaching Impacts

The pause is creating financial hardship for many international graduates. On top of the loss of income, they have paid several hundred dollars to apply for OPT, and some students, including Pulido, paid an extra $1,800 for the application to be expedited before they learned of the pause. He’s sought a refund but said he was told it couldn’t be provided due to the pause.

Beyond the financial impacts, under OPT regulations F-1 visa holders can only be unemployed for a set number of days before they violate their nonimmigrant status.

For Kimberley Duru, a medical student born in Nigeria who has been studying and working in the U.S. since 2011, the freeze threatens to upend her entire career path. She is slated to begin her residency this summer. But she won’t be allowed to do so unless she is authorized to work in the U.S.

She applied for OPT in February, which she said is a common step for international medical students before they transfer to a new visa type, like a J-1 or H-1B visa, to complete their residency. Her application has been in limbo ever since.

“I’m working towards a career in medicine and all the investment of time, effort, money that goes into it. And now to get to the end of it and to have this hurdle and to have matched to a residency program is very, very distressing and very, very unfortunate,” she said. “Very cruel, to put it mildly.”

While the hospital where Duru was slated to complete her residency has been understanding, she said, she doesn’t think they’ll be able to hold the spot for her if she isn’t authorized in time.

Students and others affected by the pause have begun filing lawsuits, hoping judges will order USCIS to process their petitions. Zachary New, an attorney with the law firm Joseph & Hall, which is representing students in two lawsuits contesting the pause, said the situation is getting dire for many of those affected.

“Anybody who’s running out of living expenses, who’s unable to continue working, who needs to continue their education but can’t, their only real option is to leave the United States. For a lot of people right now, that’s not really an option. If you’re Iranian, [your options] are wait five months for work authorization or to go back to a war zone,” he said. “It’s a rock and a hard place.”

According to New, about 30 lawsuits have been filed challenging the processing freeze, and judges have granted four injunctions requiring USCIS to process those plaintiffs’ petitions.

The program leader of Project Unpause, a grassroots group advocating for USCIS to begin processing the applications again, said that currently the only way to move them forward seems to be to sue. (The program leader requested anonymity, because she, too, is an immigrant impacted by the processing freeze.) But even that pathway is hard for many to access; some law firms are asking plaintiffs for several thousand dollars, which is financially unfeasible, especially for those who are out of work due to the pause.

Looking Ahead

International education leaders say they’re working closely with students whose applications are currently frozen, but many aren’t sure about the best advice to give.

Jack Miner, vice provost for enrollment management at the University of Cincinnati, said about a dozen students are currently facing delayed start dates or difficulties in contract negotiations for jobs they are slated to begin in the next few months. Elizabeth Leibach, an affiliate with the international education firm Gateway International, said she’s heard of students having to turn down job offers from major companies.

Shannon Bedo, another Gateway affiliate, said the best path for some students may be to continue studying.

“If it’s getting close to what would’ve been 90 days of unemployment and they don’t want to risk it, they need to look at changing to a new degree program,” she said. “Currently, if a student wants to change from a bachelor’s degree to a master’s degree, they can go ahead and do that. So, we’re actually seeing more students say, ‘I’m not going to apply for OPT, I’m going to go ahead and apply for a master’s degree.’”

Some foreign-born faculty working in the U.S. are also impacted by the pause. One professor at a public university, who requested anonymity, said he was approved for a National Interest Waiver process, which offers individuals whose skills would be beneficial to the U.S. a pathway to permanent residency.

He officially applied for his green card in November, a month before the freeze began. Because he was approved for the NIW, he said, he had already undergone a rigorous screening process.

“The human impact is immediate and concrete. I have not been able to visit my parents in my home country since 2023. I cannot travel internationally for research conferences. I have missed opportunities to apply for rare, highly specialized research positions, making my future in the US feel uncertain, which causes a significant psychological burden,” he wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed. “Even taking national security seriously, this kind of broad and indefinite pause feels like a war of attrition on people who have followed every rule and paid tens of thousand[s of] dollars in immigration and lawyers [sic] fees.”

“My concern is that freezing large numbers of already‑screened, law‑abiding applicants creates backlogs and prolonged limbo that can undermine timely, individualized vetting rather than improving it.”