The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) motion for limited relief from the court’s August 12, 2015, order, and ordered that vacatur of the 17-month STEM OPT extension be further stayed until May 10, 2016. In its option, the Court rejected the Plaintiff’s argument that it had been divested of jurisdiction to grant the requested relief. The court also found that, in light of the “unexpected and unprecedented” 50,500 public comments received in response to DHS’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on October 19, 2015, “extraordinary circumstances” existed that warranted modifying the court’s previous order pursuant to Rule 60(b)(6). (Wash. Alliance of Tech. Workers v. DHS, 1/23/16).
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) motion for limited relief from the court’s August 12, 2015, order, and ordered that vacatur of the 17-month STEM OPT extension be further stayed until May 10, 2016. In its option, the Court rejected the Plaintiff’s argument that it had been divested of jurisdiction to grant the requested relief. The court also found that, in light of the “unexpected and unprecedented” 50,500 public comments received in response to DHS’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on October 19, 2015, “extraordinary circumstances” existed that warranted modifying the court’s previous order pursuant to Rule 60(b)(6). (Wash. Alliance of Tech. Workers v. DHS, 1/23/16).
This will now help DHS finalize its STEM OPT rule, which in turn will help thousands of F-1 students who are on STEM OPT or are eligible for extensions. We will provide updates on www.bashyamspiro.com.