Foreign students studying at U.S. universities have traditionally had a year after graduation in which to find a job, allowing them to live and work in the United States. Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) changed immigration rules to stretch this window of time from 12 to 29 months for students graduating in certain areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

On May 12, 2011, DHS announced that it was expanding the list of disciplines eligible for the extension. The revised list adds fields such as neuroscience, marine science, environmental science, pharmaceutics and drug design, and education research. It also greatly expands its listings within the agricultural sciences and psychology. The decision follows a yearlong review of requests from businesses and academia to add new fields, says Gillian Christensen, a spokesperson for DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The announcement follows President Obama’s recent remarks in El Paso, Texas, where he reiterated his strong support for new policies that embrace talented students from other countries, who enrich the nation by working in science and technology jobs and fueling innovation in their chosen fields here in the United States, as a part of comprehensive reform.

By expanding the list of STEM degrees to include such fields as Neuroscience, Medical Informatics, Pharmaceutics and Drug Design, Mathematics and Computer Science, the Obama administration is helping to address shortages in certain high tech sectors of talented scientists and technology experts-permitting highly skilled foreign graduates who wish to work in their field of study upon graduation and remain in the USA, to extend their post-graduate work authorization.

Under the OPT program, foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges and universities are able to remain in the U.S. and receive training through work experience for up to 12 months. Students who graduate with one of the newly-expanded STEM degrees can remain for an additional 17 months on an OPT STEM extension.