O-1 vs OPT: hiring against a countdown

The OPT trap, from the employer side

You can hire a recent graduate on OPT with no petition at all — easier than anything on this site. The trap is the horizon: work authorization expires on a schedule, extensions are field-limited, and the traditional continuation — an H-1B — now means a window that opens approximately March 2027 and a lottery draw. Employers lose trained, productive people to pure calendar mechanics.

What the O-1 changes

• It files year-round — including before an OPT expiry becomes an emergency.
• It runs on the person's record, which two years of real work has usually strengthened.
• Your part remains one page; the petition is the agent's, not yours.

When to start

Six months before the expiry date, not six weeks. If you have an OPT employee you intend to keep, talk it through now — the case builds better with runway.