H-1B Visa After Graduation: A Guide for Indian Students

An Indian student on an F-1 visa does not apply for an H-1B. An employer does, on the student’s behalf, after graduation, usually while the student is working on OPT. The route is: finish the degree, work on OPT (12 months, or up to 36 for STEM degrees), find an employer willing to file, get selected in the annual lottery, and change status inside the United States. The $100,000 H-1B fee announced in September 2025 does not currently apply: it has been vacated by federal courts, and even while it was in force it did not apply to students changing status from F-1 inside the US. This page sets out the route as it stands in October 2026.

The route from F-1 to H-1B

1. Graduate in F-1 status. Your eligibility for everything below depends on completing the programme on your I-20 in good standing.
2. Work on OPT. Optional Practical Training gives 12 months of work authorisation in your field after graduation. Degrees on the STEM list qualify for a 24-month extension, so up to 36 months in total. OPT is applied for through your university’s international office and USCIS before and around graduation.
3. Find an employer who will sponsor. The H-1B is an employer’s petition for a specialty occupation that needs at least a bachelor’s degree. The employer pays the filing fees and files the registration. You cannot file it yourself.
4. Enter the lottery. The H-1B cap is 65,000 a year plus 20,000 for holders of US master’s degrees or higher. Employers register beneficiaries in March; selections are announced soon after; selected employers then file full petitions. Demand exceeds the cap every year, so a US master’s degree improves the odds but guarantees nothing.
5. Change status, or process at a consulate. If selected and approved while you are in the US in valid status, your status changes to H-1B on 1 October without leaving the country. If you are outside the US, or your change of status is refused, the visa is issued at a consulate, which is where the September 2025 proclamation was aimed.
6. Cap-gap. If your OPT expires between the petition filing and 1 October, the cap-gap rule extends your F-1 status and work authorisation until the H-1B starts.

Where the $100,000 fee stands

On 19 September 2025 a presidential proclamation imposed a $100,000 payment on certain new H-1B petitions. Two things matter for an F-1 graduate:

• It never applied to in-country changes of status. USCIS’s guidance of 20 October 2025 confirmed the payment applied to petitions for people outside the US who needed a visa to enter, not to petitions requesting a change of status, extension or amendment for someone already in valid status in the US. An F-1 student moving to H-1B inside the US was outside it from the start.
• It is not being collected at all as of October 2026. A federal court in Massachusetts vacated the fee on 8 June 2026; the First Circuit declined to reinstate it on 24 July. The administration extended the proclamation to September 2027 on 18 September 2026, and a California court blocked that extension on 30 September. Litigation continues, and the government has signalled it may pursue a fee through formal rulemaking, so the position can change. Check the current status before relying on it.

For planning purposes: stay in valid F-1 or OPT status through the process, so that if an employer files for you, it can be filed as a change of status.

Cap-exempt employers

Universities, non-profit research organisations affiliated with universities, and government research bodies can file H-1B petitions at any time of year without the lottery. For graduates in research, teaching or clinical fields, a cap-exempt job is a route that avoids the lottery entirely; the trade-off is that moving later to a private employer means entering the cap.

What an Indian student should plan for

• Choose the degree for its own sake. The H-1B is a possibility, not a plan. A degree chosen only as an H-1B route tends to produce a weak F-1 interview and a weak job search. The F-1 application process explains why consular officers test intent, and that test does not change because an H-1B might follow.
• STEM designation matters. The 24-month OPT extension gives three lottery attempts instead of one. Check whether a programme’s CIP code is on the STEM list before you apply.
• A US master’s helps the odds. The 20,000 advanced-degree exemption is real; it is still a lottery.
• Keep status clean. Unauthorised work, a lapsed I-20 or unreported address changes can turn an approvable change of status into a consular case.
• Have a plan that works without the H-1B. A return-home plan is not a formality for the visa interview; for most graduates it is the realistic outcome, and students who planned for it do better than students who treated it as a fallback.

FAQ

Next steps

The H-1B decision is made years after the F-1 one, by an employer. The part you control now is the programme, its STEM status and the F-1 application itself. The Study in USA page covers the route from admission to visa, and the F-1 interview questions guide covers how post-study plans should be presented at the interview.