Visas
Come here if you need a visa to work in the U.S. Read the disclaimer first.
TL;DR: Short answer: yes, under the rules in force on October 11, 2026, the time of writing. Slightly longer answer: not just anywhere, and the rules are moving.
Three things to take from this section. A STEM-designated MBA means a lot: three years of U.S. work authorization where a non-STEM degree gets you one. The companies with a history of sponsoring H-1B visas need to be on your radar from day one. And the laws are changing as we write, and we are not lawyers.
HUGE IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER!!
We are not lawyers or visa experts, and nothing in this section is legal advice. It is our own research from public sources, last checked on October 11, 2026, and no immigration attorney has reviewed it. These rules changed several times in 2026 and some of them are in court, so parts of this section may be out of date by the time you read it. Use it as a starting point, and confirm it with the official sources below, your school’s international student office, or an immigration attorney.
Sources for more info:
- USCIS official rule announcement (best primary source)
- USCIS official FAQ page
- DHS Study in the States (a plain-language explainer)
- The Federal Register, where every final and proposed rule mentioned below is published in full, with its dates
How visas work, step by step
The MBA years: an F-1 student visa. It covers the two years of the program. For the most part, only full-time residential programs (not part-time or hybrid EMBA programs) can sponsor F-1 visas.
The summer internship: CPT. Internships run on a separate authorization called Curricular Practical Training, which the school grants when the internship is part of the curriculum.
The first job: OPT. F-1 status doesn’t disappear at graduation. Graduates are generally eligible for Optional Practical Training: 12 months of U.S. work authorization tied to the degree, with no employer sponsorship required to start it.
Two more years if your MBA is STEM-designated. The STEM OPT extension adds 24 months, for up to 36 months of work authorization before any employer visa sponsorship is needed at all, provided the employer is enrolled in E-Verify and files a training plan.
After that: an H-1B. Once OPT runs out, staying in the U.S. means an employer-sponsored H-1B visa, and those are awarded by an annual lottery.
Visa 1
Which schools’ MBAs are STEM-designated
TL;DR: STEM matters a lot. This is a real, meaningful difference: a STEM-designated degree buys three years of runway; a non-STEM one buys one. 18 of 29 schools designate the entire full-time MBA as STEM; 11 designate specific tracks, majors, or concentrations only.
| School | STEM status | What qualifies |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona State Carey | Entire program | All W. P. Carey MBA platforms including the full-time MBA. |
| Berkeley Haas | Entire program | All three MBA programs (Full-Time, Evening & Weekend, Executive). |
| Carnegie Mellon Tepper | Entire program | Whole full-time MBA curriculum, all concentrations. |
| Chicago Booth | Entire program | Whole MBA, fully STEM-certified for OPT for all graduates. |
| Columbia CBS | Entire program | Whole full-time MBA (and EMBA). |
| Duke Fuqua | Entire program | Whole Daytime MBA (and Accelerated Daytime MBA), replacing the earlier MSTeM certificate track. |
| Emory Goizueta | Entire program | Whole MBA per Goizueta's own FAQ (the 2021 announcement covered a Business Analysis track; the FAQ now states the degree itself). |
| Georgia Tech Scheller | Entire program | Full-time and Evening MBA. |
| Harvard HBS | Entire program | Whole two-year MBA, reclassified under a STEM CIP code (Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods). |
| MIT Sloan | Entire program | Whole two-year MBA (and Sloan Fellows MBA). |
| NYU Stern | Entire program | Whole two-year full-time MBA. |
| Northwestern Kellogg | Entire program | Whole full-time MBA (and MBAi), on the DHS STEM Designated Degree list regardless of major. |
| Rice Jones | Entire program | All Jones master's programs including the full-time MBA. |
| Stanford GSB | Entire program | Whole MBA (and MSx). "Our MBA and MSx programs are STEM-designated" — 12 months OPT plus the 24-month extension. |
| UCLA Anderson | Entire program | All MBA programs (Full-Time, FEMBA, EMBA), regardless of specialization. |
| UNC Kenan-Flagler | Entire program | All five MBA programs including the full-time MBA. |
| Vanderbilt Owen | Entire program | Whole full-time MBA. |
| Yale SOM | Entire program | Whole MBA from the Class of 2026. NOTE: for the Class of 2025 covered by this report, only the Management Science concentration qualified. |
| Cornell Johnson | Specific tracks only | Management Science MBA track (Two-Year and One-Year), catalogued separately from the standard MBA. |
| Dartmouth Tuck | Specific tracks only | Management Science and Quantitative Methods option only: Analytics I and II plus 15+ elective credits from a designated menu, audited at the end of the second year. Not automatic. |
| Georgetown McDonough | Specific tracks only | Management Science major only (12 STEM elective credits). |
| Indiana Kelley | Specific tracks only | 5 of 7 majors: Accounting, Business Analytics, Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain & Operations. Entrepreneurship and Strategy & Leadership are not STEM. |
| Michigan Ross | Specific tracks only | Specialization in Management Science only (14 credit hours across seven academic areas). The general full-time MBA is not STEM. |
| Minnesota Carlson | Specific tracks only | Management Science MBA pathway only. The traditional full-time MBA is explicitly not STEM. |
| Pennsylvania Wharton | Specific tracks only | 9 of 22 majors: AI for Business, Business Analytics, Finance, Quantitative Finance, Statistics & Data Science, Operations Information & Decisions, Business Economics & Public Policy, Business Energy Environment & Sustainability, Impact Value & Sustainable Business. The other 13 majors are not STEM. |
| USC Marshall | Specific tracks only | Management Science (STEM) specialization: roughly half of elective credits in STEM-qualified courses. |
| UT McCombs | Specific tracks only | Two of three degree paths: Management Science & Quantitative Methods, and Financial Mathematics (14 of 22 concentrations). The general MBA path is not STEM. |
| UVA Darden | Specific tracks only | Management Science specialization only (12 credit hours of quantitative electives). The career-track concentrations are not STEM. |
| UW Foster | Specific tracks only | MBA Management Science degree option only (16 elective credit hours), earned alongside the MBA. |
If you need a visa, start your school research with this table. At the 11 schools in the bottom half, you only get the extra two years if you pick a qualifying major or track, so read the requirements before you choose your classes.
Source
Source note: Researched from each school's own published pages, September 10, 2026.