Things You Should Know About the End of Your Opt
Updated on February 7, 2022
Many students who written report on an F-1 visa wonder if they are allowed to piece of work in the US during or after their studies. And, what their options are if they are allowed to work. Ane of the great options for F-1 students is piece of work permission called Optional Applied Preparation (OPT).
Check out our video guide "All-time fourth dimension to First OPT on F1 Visa Student Visa in the United states" to larn more!
Read on to keep learning about OPT for internationals students in the U.Southward.!
What is OPT for F1 Students?
If you are a postgraduate student or an undergraduate pupil who has been studying towards your degree for more than than nine months, the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Service) allows you to go practical grooming in order to complete your field of study. This means you can be employed in the US, fifty-fifty if you are a non-citizen, without having to obtain any of the other forms of worker permits or another blazon of visa.
This optional practical training is simply bachelor to you if you are a student with an F-one visa. Read more about OPTs for F1 students.
Pre-Completion OPT
With a pre-completion OPT, you go the correct to work even while you are even so in school. This correct is express though. While school is withal in session, you are only allowed to piece of work part-fourth dimension (which means twenty hours a week). During breaks, similar summer breaks, you can work full-time (up to xl hours a week). If you have completed all the required coursework for your caste, you tin also work total-fourth dimension.
You are only allowed to piece of work for 12 months under this OPT, and you must be enrolled in school full-time.
The schoolhouse where you are enrolled at the fourth dimension yous apply for the pre-completion OPT must be certified past the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Water ice) Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). Y'all can detect accredited schools here.
You don't need to maintain F-1 visa status for the full academic twelvemonth you have been enrolled to qualify for a pre-completion OPT. If you had whatsoever other not-immigrant condition during the time y'all were enrolled, yous would nonetheless authorize to utilize for the pre-completion OPT.
Post-Completion OPT
The post-completion OPT is really the master purpose of OPT. With mail-completion OPT, you accept the right to piece of work for 12 months subsequently you lot completed your caste. All OPT must be completed inside xiv months after completing your degree.
If you worked for a pre-completion OPT period, that fourth dimension will be deducted from the time you are immune to work under the mail-completion OPT. For each new degree you get, you will exist able to authorize for a new OPT flow. The same goes if you get a higher qualification level in your existing caste.
With postal service-completion OPT, you lot may work office-time (twenty hours or less) or full-time (xl hours a calendar week).
How to Utilize for OPT
The adept news is you don't need an existing chore offer to exist eligible to apply for OPT.
Yous can utilise for OPT later being enrolled in the qualifying school for nine months, but y'all can only start working after you take been enrolled for one yr.
Follow these 3 like shooting fish in a barrel steps to apply.
Step 1
Inquire your Designated School Official at the school where you are enrolled to brand a recommendation for the OPT in your Pupil and Exchange Visitor Information Organization (SEVIS) record.
This is done by
- Endorsing your Form I-20 (Certification of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Condition) and,
- Making the necessary notations in your SEVIS.
Step 2
File a Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorisation) with the USCIS together with the required fee and the supporting documentation listed on the form.
The supporting documents and information required may include (depending on which category you lot fall in):
- Details of your degree
- Fiscal data
- Certificate of F-1 condition
- Proof of identity
- Photographs
The location or address where you file depends on the eligibility category which applies to you lot. All the necessary information will be on the form, but you tin confirm the filing addresses here.
Make certain y'all fill in all the required fields. Your application volition exist rejected if yous skip one.
Pace 3
Await for your Employment Dominance Document (EAD). You can just first working once yous have received your EAD. Don't outset working before you've received this; otherwise, you will be working without authorization (i.e. illegally) which may have serious consequences.
When can I utilise for OPT?
To run into when you can apply for OPT, compare your situation with the two options below. If y'all are uncertain what Stalk stands for, you can acquire more about information technology further down the article.
I am applying based on a non-Stem degree:
Pre-Completion OPT
- Apply after your school'southward designated official has fabricated the recommendation for OPT in your SEVIS record.
- Utilise after nine months of study, as long as y'all don't start working earlier your completed a full academic yr.
Post-Completion OPT
- Apply within 30 days of your school's designated official recommending the OPT in your SEVIS record.
- Apply for OPT up to ninety days before or inside 60 days of the completion of your degree.
I am applying based on a Stalk degree:
Pre-Completion OPT
- Apply afterwards your schoolhouse's designated official made the recommendation for OPT in your SEVIS tape.
- Apply afterward 9 months of study, as long as you don't outset working earlier your completed a full academic year.
Initial Post-Completion OPT
- Apply inside 30 days of your school's designated official recommending the OPT in your SEVIS record.
- Apply afterwards 9 months of written report, as long as y'all don't starting time working before your completed a full academic year.
Stalk OPT extension
- Apply inside 60 days of your schoolhouse'due south designated official recommending the OPT in your SEVIS record.
- Apply up to 90 days before your electric current OPT period and employment dominance expires.
Requirements to Utilize for OPT
In that location are a few general requirements if you want to apply for OPT:
- The employment you pursue during your OPT must exist directly related to your major at school,
- You must at all times maintain a lawful F-1 status, and,
- You are not immune to utilise for OPT if you are engaged in 12 months or more than Curricular Practical Training (CPT).
Find out more virtually the differences between OPT and CPT.
OPT Processing Time
It tin accept up to 90 days to process your application for OPT. Make sure you employ well in accelerate of the date you lot desire to starting time working. This will forestall a disharmonize in the fourth dimension periods.
OPT is ending, what can I do?
After a pupil'southward OPT ends, there are a lot of questions about what they can do next, especially if the OPT is ending and there'due south no H1B approval yet. Many students find that they don't want to render to their abode country after finishing their studies and fortunately, there are a few options for them to extend their stay in the United states of america.
How long can I stay after OPT ends?
At the cease of your OPT, you lot are given 60 days to stay in the US. During this time, you can utilise for one of vi options to extend your stay:
- Extend your OPT
- Enroll in a Day 1 CPR University
- Get a Piece of work Visa with an H1B Exemption
- Start your ain business organisation
- Report for a PhD (although this extension doesn't apply if you lot're going for your second primary's caste)
- Go married
These options vary greatly and so depending on your circumstances: you should decide which option would be more viable for you lot and your quest to go from OPT to greenish carte du jour.
If you stop upwardly non pursuing one of these 6 options, you volition need to leave the U.s.a. afterward those initial 60 days.
Stem OPT Extension
Stem is short for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
If you have graduated from a US university or college with a degree in ane of these Stem fields, you accept the option to utilise to extend your OPT period for an extra 24 months. This means you can extend your post-completion OPT period to upwardly to 36 months. Depending on if you did a pre-completion OPT and how long your pre-completion OPT was.
Who is Eligible for OPT Stem Extension
Only specific degrees that are included on the STEM Designated Caste Programme Listing authorize for the OPT STEM extension.
To exist eligible to utilise for the STEM extension, you must:
- Be an F-1 student,
- Take a STEM degree,
- Have been granted OPT and must currently still be in a valid period of OPT (relating to your Stalk degree), and
- The schoolhouse where you are enrolled in, or where yous obtained your degree, must exist verified past a U.S. Department of Education recognized accrediting agency and must exist certified by SEVP at the time you submit your application for your STEM extension.
Have you previously obtained a STEM degree?
If you are currently an F-1 educatee decorated with your post-completion OPT based on a non-STEM caste, you might be able to use the previous Stalk caste you obtained to apply for the Stalk OPT extension. Accept note that the applied training y'all wish to pursue during your STEM OPT-extension flow must still exist directly related to your STEM degree.
This previous Stem degree must accept been obtained from a U.S. institution of higher pedagogy. Both your Stem and non-STEM caste must have been obtained from a currently accredited and SEVP-certified institution.
Take note and recollect; you lot can only receive a Stalk-OPT extension once. If y'all already received a STEM OPT-extension for your previous STEM degree, yous are not eligible for another one.
Enrolling in another STEM caste or a higher STEM qualification?
If y'all already received a 24 month STEM OPT-extension based on a Stalk degree, but want to pursue another (different) Stalk degree, y'all may qualify for another 24 month STEM OPT-extension period. This is the same if you want to obtain a higher qualification for the degree you already have, eastward.thousand., a Masters Caste.
Employer Requirements
To exist eligible for a Stem OPT-extension, you must piece of work for an employer who meets all the requirements.
To meet the requirements, your employer must:
- accept a valid Employer Identification Number (this is issued by the Internal Revenue Service for tax purposes).
- Speaking of taxes, find out more than near the F-ane FICA tax refund and how you tin maximize yours
- be enrolled in E-Verify and remain in expert standing.
How to receive OPT STEM Extension
To use for a Stalk OPT-extension, the following documents need to be filed:
- Class I-765 (Application for Employment Potency) together with:
- The application fee
- Employer's name (every bit listed in E-Verify)
- Employer'due south Due east-Verify Company Identification Number or E-Verify Customer Company Identification Number.
- Form I-20 (Certification of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Condition)
- This form needs to have been endorsed by your school'south designated official within the last lx days.
- A copy of your STEM degree.
What happens if your OPT period expires before you receive your Stalk extension?
If you filed your STEM OPT-extension in fourth dimension, your employment authorisation under the OPT menses volition automatically exist extended for 180 days.
Responsibilities After Receiving the Stalk OPT-extension
The 2 nigh important responsibilities you lot take after receiving your STEM OPT-extension is to:
- Written report changes to your personal information to your Designated School Offices within 10 days of the alter, and
- Report to your Designated School Officers every 6 months to confirm your personal information – even if your information has not inverse.
The personal information that is relevant is your:
- Legal name
- E-post accost
- Employer'due south name
- Employer's accost
What happens if I lose my job?
If you lot lose your job while y'all are on a post-completion OPT, information technology's not the cease of the world. You are allowed to be unemployed for the following periods without losing your OPT authorization:
- Initial post-completion OPT (without Stem extension) – 90 days.
- Stem OPT-extension – the normal xc days plus an additional 60 days = total of 150 days.
2 Tips to Help you lot Navigate Your OPT
Below are a few general notes that will help you navigate all the procedures and requirements of your OPT.
Travel Regulations
If y'all are an F-1 student and y'all decide to exit the country temporarily after the completion of your caste but before yous received your EAD and got a job, there is a chance you may not be readmitted back into the US.
You can leave the US if you have a job and your EAD, but all your documentation will be needed to be readmitted.
These documents include:
- Your valid passport
- Your valid EAD carte
- Your valid F-ane visa
- All your I-20 documents (make sure page iii is endorsed for travel by your international pupil advisor within the by half-dozen months)
- A alphabetic character of employment (which must include dates of employment and details about your salary)
Read more than here: Tin Optional Practical Training (OPT) Students Travel away?
School Transfers or Changes to Degree
If you have already received your OPT authorization, just y'all make up one's mind to transfer schools or begin studying towards some other educational level (like a Masters) your dominance for the OPT employment will exist automatically terminated. SEVP volition inform the USCIS of the date of termination and USCIS will terminate your EAD.
Once your EAD is terminated, your authorization to appoint in OPT will end. Your F-1 condition will, however, non be affected by the USCIS terminating your EAD if you notwithstanding comply with all the requirements to maintain your student status.
The most important tip?
DO Not Work ON YOUR TERMINATED EAD. The termination of your EAD ways you are not authorized to work in the US anymore. If y'all piece of work without authorization, there may be serious consequences.
OPT is a great option for F-1 students to piece of work in the United states. Make sure y'all know all the requirements to apply — and utilise on fourth dimension! OPT is another stride into your bright futurity.
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Source: https://www.stilt.com/blog/2018/06/opt-visa/
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