Status · F-1
The student head-start nobody uses
What can lawfully be built while studying, and what must wait for work authorization.
published 19 May 2026 · revised 26 October 2026 · checked 3 October 2026
The gap, named · our reading of the rule
F-1 students often believe they cannot take any startup steps until receiving an EAD, wasting years of potential preparation. The restriction governs performing work for pay, and this page reads it as leaving room for business planning, research, or holding equity. That is a reading. It is not a ruling on any student's facts.
The Regulatory Framework
Under 8 CFR § 274a.1(h), employment means any service or labor performed by an employee for an employer within the United States. Our reading, and not the regulation's words: conducting market research, incorporating an entity, applying for patents, holding equity or pitching investors is not service or labor performed for an employer, so long as no operational work is actually done. The regulation states the definition. The application to those activities is ours.
This is a question for your DSO and your own attorney. No regulation lists incorporating, holding equity or pitching investors as permitted or prohibited for an F-1 student. Where preparation ends and unauthorised work begins depends on your facts, and your designated school official (DSO) and your own attorney are the people who draw that line. This page cannot.
CPT is a different permission again. Your school's designated school official authorises Curricular Practical Training (CPT), only for training your curriculum requires, through an employer that has a cooperative agreement with your school (8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(i)). It is a school authorisation with no USCIS filing, so it has no filing window. No rule we have read provides for CPT in a company you own, so that is a question for your DSO and your attorney. Twelve months or more of full-time CPT ends eligibility for post-completion OPT. Since August 2026 SEVP guidance, which is not a rule, tells schools to approve CPT only where every student in the program must do it (SEVP broadcast message 2608-02, 24 August 2026, and 2608-01, 12 August 2026).
What has moved
- F-1 duration of status: FINAL rule, POSTPONED by court order. A final rule published 17 July 2026 (effective date 15 September 2026) fixes admission to the I-20 program for a maximum of 4 years, cuts the post-program departure grace period from 60 days to 30, and requires OPT and STEM OPT students to obtain an extension of stay from USCIS. On 14 September 2026 the federal court in Massachusetts postponed the rule's effective date nationwide (5 U.S.C. § 705, Presidents' Alliance v. DHS), and the government appealed on 1 October 2026. Duration of status continues for now. That is FACT: we read the court's order on 3 October 2026 (Memorandum and Order). The eCFR shows the new text as if it were in force, and it does not reflect the court order. No DHS page we read mentions the order yet. It can change on appeal. (FR Doc 2026-14439.)
- OPT fee rule: PROPOSED. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement proposed on 8 October 2026 that the school remit $70,000 before its designated school official first recommends a student for any type of OPT, and $30,000 before a later OPT recommendation only if the student previously participated in OPT and the initial $70,000 fee was paid. Schools may pass the cost to students or employers, and whether any would is unknown. Comments close 9 November 2026. The proposal does not change the I-765 fee. It is not law. (FR Doc 2026-20660. FACT.)
How entrepreneurs prepare for this conversation
- Step 1: Settle the legal-setup question first. Ask your DSO and attorney whether forming a U.S. entity, obtaining an EIN, drafting organizational agreements and applying for patents while enrolled fits your facts. If they say yes, the setup can happen early.
- Step 2: Settle the delegation question. Ask your DSO and attorney whether contracting operational tasks out to third-party vendors or authorized U.S. workers while you keep a purely owner-investor role stays on the preparation side of the line for you.
- Step 3: Transition to OPT at graduation. Operational work waits for post-completion OPT authorization to take effect. Track unemployment days with your DSO from the first day of OPT.
DSO & Attorney Interrogation Sheet (What to Ask)
- Does my planned pre-incorporation roadmap avoid unauthorized employment under SEVP guidelines?
- How do my startup milestones fit the OPT filing window, and does my curriculum require practical training that my DSO could authorise as CPT?
- If the court's postponement of the F-1 duration-of-status rule is lifted on appeal, what changes for my program end date and my OPT timing?
Status of pending rules · checked 26 October 2026
Rules in these lanes are moving in weeks, not years. Each line below names the instrument, its stage and its date. The stage words mean: FINAL (published, and in force unless a court has stopped it), PROPOSED (published for comment, not law), EXTENDED (renewed by a new proclamation), ENJOINED or BLOCKED (a court has paused it or stopped its enforcement), POSTPONED (a court has delayed the date a rule takes effect), VACATED (a court has set it aside), NOT PUBLISHED (reported, with no text to read). Two of these, the student admission rule and the $100,000 fee, can change again on appeal within weeks. Rows 2, 4, 5, 9, 13, 14 and 15 were re-read on 26 October 2026. Row 1 was checked on 26 October 2026 at the Federal Register for its stage only. Rows 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 were last re-read on 2 October 2026 and were not re-read on 26 October 2026. This is education about where each rule stands. Whether any of it reaches your situation is a question for your own attorney.
| # | Rule | Stage and date | What it does | How sure we are |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $103,265 fee on cap-subject H-1B petitions | PROPOSED. Notice of proposed rulemaking, 25 August 2026. Comments closed 24 September 2026. | Would add a fee of $103,265 to cap-subject H-1B petitions. The proposal has no small-employer exemption. It excludes higher-education and nonprofit research petitioners. It is not law. FR Doc 2026-17324 | FACT |
| 2 | $100,000 H-1B restriction | VACATED (implementing guidance), 8 June 2026, State of California v. Mullin (D. Mass.). The First Circuit denied a stay on 24 July 2026, and the appeal is pending (No. 26-1699). EXTENDED by Proclamation 11069, signed 18 September 2026, effective 21 September 2026, to 21 September 2027. BLOCKED again on 30 September 2026 by a second court (N.D. Cal., Global Nurse Force v. Trump). It set aside the agencies' policies for collecting the $100,000 and barred enforcing them under either proclamation until the agencies complete notice-and-comment rulemaking. It declined to pause its order. The order covers the agencies' policies and leaves the proclamations themselves in place. The government is reported to have appealed. | USCIS says it will comply with the vacatur, so the $100,000 is not being collected today. The original restriction was Proclamation 10973 of 19 September 2025. USCIS H-1B FAQ (read 26 October 2026) · FR Doc 2026-19554 · the 30 September 2026 order (N.D. Cal.) | FACT that it is not being collected today, and FACT on the 30 September order: we read the USCIS page and the order itself on 26 October 2026. OBSERVATION on the appeal of the 30 September order (news reporting). Both orders are under appeal, and a pause from an appeals court would change this row. |
| 3 | H-1B program-integrity executive order | FINAL (executive order), 18 September 2026. | Directs State, Labor and DHS to weigh an employer's recent or planned layoffs of similarly situated U.S. workers when petitions are reviewed. Implementing guidance has not been published as far as we can find. White House fact sheet | FACT on the order. UNKNOWN on guidance. |
| 4 | F-1 duration of status: fixed admission period | FINAL rule published 17 July 2026 (91 FR 44976), effective date 15 September 2026. POSTPONED by court order. On 14 September 2026 the federal court in Massachusetts postponed the rule's effective date nationwide (5 U.S.C. § 705, Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration v. DHS). The government appealed on 1 October 2026 (First Circuit No. 26-2112). The appeal is on an expedited schedule, with the government's opening brief due 9 November 2026. Duration of status continues for now. | If the rule takes effect: admission is fixed to the I-20 program with a maximum of 4 years. The departure grace period falls from 60 to 30 days. OPT and STEM OPT require a USCIS extension of stay. The eCFR shows the new text as if it were in force. It does not reflect the court order. FR Doc 2026-14439 · Study in the States · Memorandum and Order, 14 September 2026 | FACT. We read the order itself, and re-checked the appeal docket and the eCFR, on 26 October 2026. No DHS or Study in the States page we read mentions the order, so a school page may still show the rule as coming. |
| 5 | OPT fee rule | PROPOSED. Notice of proposed rulemaking by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Student and Exchange Visitor Program), published 8 October 2026 (91 FR 64566, docket ICEB-2026-0100). Comments close 9 November 2026. | The school would remit the payment. The proposal says schools may pass the cost to students or employers and does not restrict how they fund it; whether a particular school would do so is unknown. A school certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program would pay $70,000 before its designated school official first recommends a student for any type of OPT. It would pay $30,000 before a later OPT recommendation only when the student has previously participated in OPT and the initial $70,000 fee was paid; that includes a STEM OPT extension. USCIS would not grant the OPT work card until the school has paid. The fee would apply to recommendations dated 60 days or more after a final rule. It is not an I-765 fee, and the proposal does not change the I-765 fee. It is not law. FR Doc 2026-20660 | FACT on what the proposal says, including that it contemplates schools passing the cost to students or employers. UNKNOWN on what any given school would do. |
| 6 | H-4 EAD rescission | On the federal Unified Agenda as a long-term action, RIN 1615-AD14. No proposed rule. No date. | Would remove H-4 spouses from the classes eligible for work authorization. It is not law. | OBSERVATION (law-firm reporting) |
| 7 | Wage-weighted H-1B selection | FINAL. Published 29 December 2025, effective 27 February 2026. Used for the FY2027 registration, 4 to 19 March 2026. | A Level IV wage level gets four entries in the selection lottery and Level I gets one. A company that registers its owner at a Level I wage gets one entry. FR Doc 2025-23853 | FACT. No business challenge was filed before FY2027 selection (OBSERVATION). |
| 8 | Department of Labor prevailing-wage overhaul | PROPOSED. 27 March 2026. | Would raise Level I from the 17th to the 34th percentile and Level IV from the 67th to the 88th. It is not final. FR Doc 2026-06017 | FACT |
| 9 | End of automatic EAD extensions | FINAL. The interim final rule of 30 October 2025 (90 FR 48799) was adopted without change by a final rule published and effective 14 October 2026 (91 FR 65306). | For renewals filed on or after 30 October 2025, an expiring work-authorization card is no longer extended automatically, H-4 included, and the final rule gives H-4 no exemption. The 30 October 2025 filing cut-off is unchanged. Extensions already granted on renewals filed before that date are unaffected. FR Doc 2026-20955 · the interim rule, FR Doc 2025-19702 | FACT |
| 10 | Online-presence review for H-1B and H-4 visa applicants | State Department policy since 15 December 2025. It applied to F, M and J applicants from June 2025. | Applicants are expected to make social media settings public. | OBSERVATION (secondary reporting). We did not re-read the State Department announcement on 2 or 3 October 2026. |
| 11 | Cap-gap extended to 1 April | FINAL. Part of the January 2025 modernization rule, 89 FR 103054, in force since 17 January 2025. | F-1 students moving to H-1B are covered until 1 April, which is later than the old 1 October date. FR Doc 2024-29354 | FACT |
| 12 | $250 visa integrity fee | Enacted 4 July 2025 (Public Law 119-21). Not yet collected. | A fee created by statute. The date it starts being collected is UNKNOWN. | FACT on enactment. UNKNOWN on start date. |
| 13 | 60-day grace period for workers | PROPOSED. Published 11 September 2026 (91 FR 57807). Comments close 10 November 2026. | Would remove 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2), the grace period of up to 60 days after a job ends, for H-1B, E-3, L-1, O-1 and TN workers and others, and for their dependents. It is not law. FR Doc 2026-18631 | FACT |
| 14 | Deference to prior approvals on extension requests | PROPOSED. USCIS notice of proposed rulemaking, published 14 October 2026 (91 FR 65119, docket USCIS-2026-0529). Comments close 13 November 2026. | Would remove 8 CFR 214.1(c)(5). Today that provision has USCIS give deference to its own prior determination when a request on Form I-129 involves the same parties and the same underlying facts, unless there was a material error, a material change or new material information. The proposal would apply to every extension request on Form I-129, E-1 and E-2 included. An officer could still consider a prior approval where relevant. The date it would take effect if finalized is UNKNOWN. It is not law. FR Doc 2026-20941 | FACT on the proposal. UNKNOWN on the effective date. |
| 15 | $4,000 H-1B / $4,500 L-1 biometric entry-exit fee | FINAL. U.S. Customs and Border Protection rule published 10 August 2026 (91 FR 51360, docket USCBP-2024-0009), effective 9 September 2026. | Covered employers pay $4,000 per H-1B petition and $4,500 per L-1 petition (8 CFR 106.2(c)(8) and (9)). A covered employer has 50 or more U.S. employees, with more than half of them in H-1B, L-1A or L-1B status; both tests must be met. Since 9 September 2026 the fee is paid on every extension petition, a same-employer extension included, and it is still paid on initial petitions. Amended petitions that do not seek an extension are exempt. It applies to petitions filed on or before 30 September 2027, and not to petitions already pending when the rule took effect. FR Doc 2026-16231 | FACT |
If a date here is older than the news, the news wins. Check the linked source, then take the question to your attorney.
What this is not This piece quotes the published rule and says plainly where we are reading it rather than quoting it. It is not legal, tax or immigration advice, it creates no attorney–client relationship, and neither you nor we can apply it to your facts. Rules also move — check the date above, then take the questions in this piece to your own licensed attorney and CPA, who are the only people who can advise you.
Sources · primary law first, our own notes labelled as such
8 CFR 274a.1(h): definition of employment. Check the text in force on the day you read it.
8 CFR 214.2(f): F-1 student status regulations. Check the text in force on the day you read it. The eCFR prints the fixed-period text as if it had been in force since 15 September 2026, and a court has postponed it.
8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(i): curricular practical training. Read 3 October 2026.
8 CFR 214.2(f)(9): employment restrictions.
SEVP broadcast message 2608-02, 24 August 2026, and 2608-01, 12 August 2026: CPT guidance for designated school officials. Read 3 October 2026.
SEVIS Help Hub: F-1 CPT, updated 24 August 2026. Read 3 October 2026.
Other SEVP guidance for designated school officials, last read August 2026 and not re-read on 3 October 2026.
FR Doc 2026-14439: F-1 fixed period of admission, 17 July 2026.
Ownership and work authorisation are treated differently in the rules, and that difference is what this library is about. Everything here is written for people keeping the job that holds their status.
Put a number on it. Readiness Check
Then choose your route. The Immigrant Entrepreneur Cohort is four weeks, while employed, and it starts with exactly this question. See the next run →