A process for the preparation of a multifilament optical fiber having 1,000 to 10,000 islands as optical filaments, which comprises using a composite spinning spinneret for the preparation of an islands-in-a-sea type multifilament fiber, which comprises at least three piled orifice plates including an orifice plate having many island-forming nozzle holes, an orifice plate having a sea-forming nozzle hole and an orifice plate having a filament-gathering nozzle hole, the nozzle hole of the orifice plate arranged just above the lowermost orifice plate having a trumpet-shaped opening extending toward the lower end face thereof and a sea component flow passage being formed between two orifice plates arranged just above the lowermost orifice plate, and supplying a thermoplastic polymer for forming cores of optical filaments from the island-forming nozzle holes and a sea-forming thermoplastic polymer from the sea-forming nozzle hole to effect composite spinning and gathering many filaments in the gathering nozzle hole.