[squillful]

Hi Peter! A friend of mine has just started OPT and has founded a company. She plans on using the STEM extension too, which was a successful path for myself and some others, but the recent changes to the STEM extension seem to be considerably more limiting now. Do you have any guidance on options for founders considering the OPT and STEM extension route?

Many thanks in advance!

[proberts]

That's right, STEM OPT is much more restrictive than "regular" OPT for founders and owners. But the details of this are really up to the school so I would recommend that she speak openly with her school's international student office to find what's required to get STEM approved for a founder/owner.

[fgandiya]

What did they change about the STEM extension?

[squillful]

This blog post sums things up well - http://blog.cyrusmehta.com/2016/03/suffocating-the-foreign-e...

Whilst it's pretty great that the extension was increased from 17 months to 2 years, you now have to prove an employer-employee relationship, which is significantly more limiting than the previous iteration.

[proberts]

That's right.

[fgandiya]

Thanks you.