What is OPT?

Pre-completion OPT is used while still studying — part-time during term, full-time during holidays. Any time used pre-completion is deducted from the 12 months available afterwards, which is why most students save it.

Post-completion OPT is the common form: up to 12 months of full-time work after finishing the programme. The job must be directly related to the field of study, and that connection is something the student should be able to explain if asked.

The process starts with the school. A designated school official recommends OPT in SEVIS and issues an updated Form I-20. The student then files Form I-765 with USCIS for an Employment Authorization Document.

Applications can usually be filed within a window beginning 90 days before the programme end date and ending 60 days after it. Processing takes months rather than weeks, and work cannot begin until the EAD is in hand and its start date has arrived — not when the application is filed, and not when it is approved if the card has not yet issued.

That processing delay is the single most common source of difficulty. A student who files late can lose weeks of their authorisation period, because the clock is set by the dates on the card.

Students with a degree on the government's STEM designated degree program list may apply for a further 24 months, giving 36 in total.

The conditions are stricter than for standard OPT. The employer must be enrolled in E-Verify. There must be a formal training plan, Form I-983, signed by both student and employer and setting out what the student will learn. The employer must pay a wage comparable to similarly situated US workers. And there are reporting obligations during the extension.

The E-Verify requirement is worth knowing early: a job offer from an employer that is not enrolled cannot support a STEM extension, however suitable the role.

Standard post-completion OPT allows an aggregate of 90 days of unemployment. The STEM extension adds a further 60, making 150 in total across the period.

Exceeding the limit is a status problem, not merely an administrative one. Days are counted in aggregate rather than consecutively, so several short gaps add up the same way one long gap does. Qualifying volunteer and unpaid work can count as employment where it relates to the field of study and meets the hours requirement, but it should be documented.

OPT is frequently the bridge to an H-1B. A student on OPT is hired, the employer registers them in the H-1B lottery in the spring, and if selected and approved their employment continues on H-1B from October 1.

Because OPT often expires before October 1, there is a cap-gap provision that can automatically extend F-1 status and work authorisation for a student with a timely-filed, cap-subject H-1B petition. It applies only in defined circumstances, and the details are worth confirming with the school rather than assuming.

For staffing firms and employers, the practical consequence is a planning one: a candidate on OPT has a known expiry date, and whether the role continues past it depends on a lottery nobody controls.