Nursing is not STEM OPT eligible. Plan around it.
This comes up constantly and the answer is short: no.
The STEM OPT extension covers engineering, biological sciences, mathematics and physical sciences, plus a handful of related codes. Nursing sits under a different classification and is not on the list, even though several other health professions are.
So a nursing graduate gets twelve months of post-completion OPT and no extension.
Why that matters more than it sounds
The problem is not only that twelve months is less than 36. It is that you get one attempt at everything.
A STEM graduate with 36 months can enter the H-1B lottery three times. You enter once, into a selection that since February 2026 weights entries by Department of Labor wage level. Registrations at Level IV go into the pool four times, Level III three, Level II twice, and Level I once. Staff nursing prices at Level I.
When DHS wrote that rule it projected a 15.3% selection rate for Level I registrations. Treat the lottery as a raffle ticket you happen to hold rather than as a plan.
What replaces it
Two things, and both depend on the employer rather than on you.
Cap-exempt employers file H-1B petitions outside the annual cap, at any time of year, with no lottery. That category is higher education institutions, nonprofits affiliated with them, and nonprofit or governmental research organizations. Many academic medical centers qualify through a university affiliation, and it is a legal test about the specific employer, so ask rather than assume.
The other is the EB-3 immigrant petition. Registered nursing is a Schedule A occupation, which lets an employer skip the labor certification step. It does not skip the wait, which depends on your country of birth.
Both are employer decisions, which is why choosing where you apply matters more for you than it does for your classmates.
Has anyone tried to change this?
Yes. The American Nurses Association wrote to DHS in September 2024 asking that nursing be added to the STEM list, noting that other health professions already appear on it. Nursing is not on the current list and we have found no evidence the request was granted. If that changes we will update this page and note it in the policy tracker.
If you are a U.S.-educated nursing graduate looking for an employer that sponsors, apply to inSpring.
Last checked September 9, 2026. The 15.3% figure is DHS’s own projection in the weighted selection final rule, not a published outcome. USCIS has not released selection rates by wage level.