By every ordinary measure, our client looked like a model applicant. He had earned a master’s degree in a demanding STEM field with a near-perfect GPA, and he was ready to launch his career in the United States on post-completion Optional Practical Training (OPT). When he filed his application, though, USCIS did not approve it. The agency issued a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) — and it did not question whether he qualified. It questioned whether he deserved the benefit at all, pointing to a single DUI (driving under the influence) arrest from the prior year and exercising its discretion against him. We answered with a thorough, proof-backed account of both the incident and the person behind it, and USCIS approved the application through Premium Processing.
Our client filed Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, to move from F-1 student status into post-completion OPT. Academically he was near the top of his program, he had a professional opportunity in front of him, and nothing about his eligibility was in doubt.
What arrived instead of an approval was a Notice of Intent to Deny. Crucially, USCIS conceded that he met the requirements for OPT. Its objection was rooted in discretion — the authority to grant or withhold employment authorization after weighing the good and the bad in an applicant’s history. Relying on one DUI arrest from the year before, the officer concluded that our client had not carried his burden of showing he warranted a favorable decision, and set the case on a path toward denial.
To reverse that course, the NOID gave him a brief, non-extendable period to produce certified court disposition and conviction records for the arrest, the underlying arrest or police report, and a written explanation supported by evidence of any mitigating circumstances — everything needed to convince the government that a single incident should not derail years of work.
An ordinary OPT case is won or lost on the paperwork of eligibility. This one was not, and that made it considerably harder to defend.
The dispute lived entirely in the realm of judgment. Because eligibility was never contested, we could not simply prove a fact and be done; we had to persuade an officer that our client, viewed as a whole person, was worthy of a favorable call.
There was also no way to sidestep the arrest. It had happened, it was documented, and any attempt to wave it away would have been both dishonest and self-defeating. The only viable path was to confront it openly and surround it with context.
Finally, this kind of discretionary scrutiny of OPT filings tied to a criminal arrest has grown noticeably more common. Many applicants never imagine that one misdemeanor-level incident could put an otherwise clean, well-qualified application at real risk.
Overcoming this Notice of Intent to Deny required far more than a persuasive legal brief. Within a limited response period, we developed a comprehensive, case-specific strategy that directly addressed USCIS’s concerns while presenting a compelling and well-supported picture of our client’s character, rehabilitation, and overall equities. By carefully selecting, organizing, and framing the evidence in accordance with USCIS’s discretionary standards, we were able to reshape how the client’s history was viewed — from a single arrest to the record of an accomplished individual who accepted responsibility and demonstrated positive contributions.
USCIS approved our client’s Form I-765 through Premium Processing in July 2026. Faced with a full and well-organized record, the discretionary objection fell away. He received the approval confirming his post-completion OPT, followed by his Employment Authorization Document, and can now work lawfully in the United States in the field he trained for.
Discretionary review of OPT and other work-authorization filings is here to stay, and it is reaching more applicants each year. Even a lone arrest — one that was resolved long ago, or that never led to a conviction — can be enough to prompt this kind of examination.
The takeaway is not that a past mistake forecloses the future. It is that anyone in this situation should be ready to face the issue squarely and to document both the complete resolution of the matter and the fuller story of who they are. Favorable discretion is not assumed; it is earned with evidence of responsibility, rehabilitation, and the contributions that outweigh a single misstep.
At the Law Offices of Sabrina Li, we routinely represent F-1 students and recent graduates responding to Notices of Intent to Deny, Requests for Evidence, and denials involving OPT and STEM OPT — including cases made harder by a criminal record. Because these matters are governed by federal law, our Los Angeles and Dallas offices are able to assist clients across the country. Call (213) 375-8096 or our Chinese hotline at (626) 800-4820 or email info@sabrinali.law to talk through your situation.
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