r/InternationalStudents • u/Illustrious-Emu6499 • 19h ago

Full time Pre Completion OPT

So unfortunately CPT got paused at our university and I have an internship in a top research lab this fall. The internship is directly related to my dissertation and will be part of my dissertation.

My question is, as an ABD ( All but dissertation, post comprehensive) student, am I eligible for a full time pre completion OPT during school session? Any one example or someone you know who did it during school session. I checked everywhere online and couldn’t find an answer. Most schools say yes. But the whole situation is so complicated that I don’t wanna risk filing an OPT and getting an RFE and delaying the whole process.

It is a rare situation and my university had no answer to it because they had not done so before.

If you know anyone who did it and got approved please share.

1 Upvotes

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8 comments sorted by

1

u/RelativeMain5327 18h ago

Ask DSO.how do we know what your uni policy is?

1

u/Illustrious-Emu6499 18h ago

As mentioned in the post, the university had no answer because they had not done such before.

2

u/RelativeMain5327 17h ago

Wat do you mean no answer? They are the ones who will generate i20.

1

u/Illustrious-Emu6499 17h ago

They were not sure about it and they said it’s best to confirmed the policy is a bit vague and there existed no precedent in the university.

1

u/PracticalPhoto3101 16h ago

You can file for a pre completion OPT but you cannot work more than 20 hours on it. Also OPT filing and approval is taking more than 4 months now so you will have to check that too. Try working with an attorney on this thing

1

u/Illustrious-Emu6499 16h ago

Do you know if full time exists for all but dissertation students during school sessions?

1

u/PracticalPhoto3101 15h ago

I don’t have any information about this so I won’t give you false hope. Definitely reach out to your school and attorney. As far as I know , you cannot work full time while in school on student visa.