OPT Guide 2024: Complete Optional Practical Training for F1 Students

hey there everyone and welcome back to my channel where we talk about all things International students so today we're going to be talking about a very important topic optional practical training or as many people call it op so let's get started [Music] so first off what exactly is opt well opt is a temporary work authorization that's granted by the US government to International students so basically it's a way for you to work legally in America as an international student now there's two types of opt the first one is called pre-completion opt and the second one is called post completion opt now the pre-completion opt is basically allowing you to work before you finish your studies but I'll be honest with you I haven't seen many people get this one in fact in all of my years studying in America I've not had one friend who actually got a pre-completion opt so I don't think it's very feasible for most people to get this type of opt the most common type of opt that most people get is the post completion opt so basically it's the opt that you get after you graduate so because post completion opt is the most common that's what I'm going to focus on in this video now when it comes to post completion opt it's actually a 12mon work authorization so basically if you get the post completion opt you're allowed to work in America for up to 12 months now there is a caveat to that the caveat is that you can get an additional 24 months if you've studied a stem field or if you've gotten your degree in a stem field so think of computer science Hardware engineering Actuarial science mathematics those type of things if you are to have majored in one of those fields then you can apply for an additional 24 months on your opt and basically what that means is you'll be able to work in America for up to three years for your opt but now you're probably asking me okay I hear that how do I really get the opt so one thing I want to note over here is that the opt can be granted after each educational level so basically what that means is if you graduate with your associates degree then you are entitled to 12 months opt however you won't get the stem extension for associates degree so even if you majored in like a stem field for your associates degree they don't give you the additional 24 months for that that's only for bachelor's degree and master's degree so if you graduate with your asso ass degree then you can apply for your opt and get up to 12 months of work authorization but then of course if you don't apply for it and you directly go to your bachelor's degree then you kind of lose that opportunity to apply for your opt on your associates degree so it's very important that if you get an associates degree that you take advantage of the opt then before transferring on to your for year school that's exactly what I did I went to Community College first got my associates degree and then then got my opt for my associates degree and worked for a year before returning to school to go and get my bachelor's degree but basically the opt is there for every educational level so for your bachelor's degree you can get 12 months of opt and basically that's work authorization in America for up to 12 months but now if you are in a stem field or you've majored in a stem field then you can get an additional 24 months which will bring your total to 36 months and this is the same for your master's degree if you do go and get a master's degree then depending on what type of master's degree you've gotten can be up to 36 months but the caveat here is very similar to that of the associates degree if you are to start your master's program and you haven't used up your opt for your Bachelor it disappears right so if you went from Bachelor directly to Masters you will miss out on the bachelor's opt so you won't be able to do that so from Masters to doctorate is kind of the same thing so this is a very valuable tool for international student to use opt will allow you to work in the United States so having said that what's the criteria and who's eligible for it now the eligibility for opt is as follows you have to be a valid F1 student which makes sense you have to be an international student then the second thing is you must have been studying in the United States fulltime for at least one academic year so at least for one year you must have been studying in the United States of America and then the third thing and this is probably the most important you must be working in a field related to your major so if you get a computer science degree for instance you cannot go and now work as a barista right it's not exactly how it works you need to be working in a profession that is closely related to your field of study so now we understand who can apply for it what's the trickiest thing about the opt now one of the most important things about the opt is the timeline in fact I feel like it's one of the trickiest parts so let's actually take a look at the rundown so the earliest that you can apply for your post completion opt is actually 90 days before your graduation date so 90 days before you graduate you can actually apply for your opt now the latest you can apply for your opt is actually 60 days after your graduation so if you apply on the 60 first day after you've graduated you will be ineligible to get that opt and basically you have to make sure that the USCIS gets your application within those 60 days so what I tell everyone that I meet is that they should apply as early as possible because it is going to take time for the government to actually process your application and if you are missing some documents or you filled in the form incorrectly then you have ample time to correct that right so apply when you get to those 90 days before your graduation apply and that will be the best way for you to ensure that you can get that opt now let's actually move to another thing that's very closely related to this the rules around opt so as I said you should be applying as soon as possible there's other rules when it comes to opt so the first rule is the job that you get must be related to your major so whatever position you take whether it's full time part-time paid or unpaid it has to tie back to what you studied this is absolutely important as I said before if you get a bachelor's in computer science you cannot be a barista the second thing is you need to keep track of your unemployment so you only get 90 days of unemployment during your initial opt and if you get the stem extension then it's 150 days now what does that mean it means that if during your 12 months you have been unemployed for 91 days then you are no longer eligible for opt so they can resend your opt and you'll have to leave the country right you'll be no longer having valid work authorization now for stem extension you do have that additional 60 days for 150 days you can be unemployed but then if you are unemployed for 151 days during those 3 years then you are no longer eligible to work in the United States of America now the Third thing is that you have to work for at least 20 hours per week now the great thing about opt is that it doesn't have to be a paid position right you can be a volunteer and that still counts as opt but even if you are a volunteer you have to still work for 20 hours a week at minimum that is the rule if you're not working for that many hours then you are violating your opt agreement and therefore they can resend your opt and you have to leave the country now the fourth rule that you need to know is that you need to be updating your DSO office or the USCIS every time you move so if you are to move within 10 days you have to give an update to your DSO office or the USCIS so those are the rules to remember when it comes to the opt make sure that you remember those they are super important the most difficult one is the unemployment a lot of students are suffering when it comes to unemployment but remember you can always volunteer so if you are having trouble finding a job as an international student and you are on opt and you're very scared that you're going to violate this 90day grace period that they give you then always consider volunteering at an organization and not getting paid for that as long as you do that then you'll still be able to work in America and as you are volunteering you can actually find a full-time position that pays so the next thing I want to talk about is how you can apply for your op so the process is that you get an opt recommendation from your DSO and this is basically your designated School official and they'll update your CV's record and issue you a new I20 so you have to be issued a new I20 in order to be able to apply for opt the Second Step from there is you're going to be filling out form i765 so 765 is the application for employment authorization you're going to be filling out that form and what's going to happen is you're going to need to prepare your documents so you have to get your new I20 from your DSO you're going to have to have copies of your passport visa and any previous work authorization cards you've had then you're also going to have to have two passport style photos and a filing fee now the filing fee can be like $500 so it is quite a lot of money so you need to make sure that you save for that at least it was $500 when I was applying and I think it's a lot more now then what you're going to do after all of that after you prepare all your documents you're going to file your application and usually this is going to be done by mail and you'll be sending it to a specific USCIS lockbox so you need to make sure that you ask your DSO office who should I be sending this to and they'll give you all the information that you need then once you've filed you have to wait for your EAD card now this can take some time it can take three four or even five months so be prepared to wait for that card and this is why I say that it's mightly important to apply for your opt early because this process can take a long time and even if you get a job offer if you do not have that EAD card by the time you need to start the job you will not be able to start the job if the start dates on the 1st of July and your EAD card doesn't come until the 25th of July you cannot start working on the 1st of July even though you know you approved for your EAD card or anything like that you'd have to wait until the 25th of July and usually employers would not like that and they'll resend your offer so be very mindful of applying early as it will only benefit you so wrapping everything up my piece of advice for you is make sure that you apply for your opt after each educational level so if you get your associates degree apply for your opt and go and get it and use your opt before moving on to your bachelor's degree and before moving on to your master Masters and your PhD if that's where you want to go make sure that after each educational level you apply for your opt this comes down to again it's very challenging as an international student to get a job in America and it's because you're going to be having to answer this question will you now or in the future require sponsorship and a lot of companies will eliminate you if you say yes I'm an international student and I require sponsorship now I actually made a video about that and I'm going to put the link somewhere here so that you can go and watch that but definitely think about about applying for your opt after each educational level as that'll give you the experience needed for you to be able to find a really great job by the time you graduate with your Bachelor or Masters the other piece of advice that I have is make sure you are in constant communication with your DSO you need to make sure that you speak with the people in your International students office to ensure that you follow all the rules and regulations is going to prevent you from having any issues with USCIS I hope this was informative and it gives you better picture of how you can study in America so definitely if you like the video like And subscribe and even leave a comment below and I'll try and answer whatever comments come down below but having said that thank you so much for watching and I'll be seeing you in the next video