Students who are on 12 month OPT cannot stay unemployed for more than 90 days.
Students who are on 29 month OPT (STEM); Science/Engineering/Computer Science degrees etc., cannot stay unemployed for more than 120 days.

USA is becoming more & more unfriendly for International Students.

Source:
http://www.murthy.com/news/n_empstu.html

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-7427.htm

I think the initial days of unemployment for students on STEM is also 90 days. I am not sure though. Can a student whose degree falls in STEM stay unemployed for 120 days(I mean 120 straight days after OPT ) and still maintain the status ?

dubyo USA aba.. US le afnai geda chyapi ra cha.. hamro k chyapcha.. Nepal ta cha ni..

Nep Kt, you are right.  one can only unemployed for maximum of 90 days regardless of type of degree.  However, for those with STEM, they have 20 more days after getting OPT extended to 29 months. 

sorry my bad, it is 30 days after getting OPT extended. a total of 120 days.

AAAA

Do u mean that if you are employed for the first year of OPT ( under which condition only , you will be able to apply for 29 months extension) , you will get 120 days to search for another job?

In addition, to my best knowledge OPT extension is provided 3 terms of 6 months. In addition, during each of the extension you need to be employed.

The OPT extension can help students who are already employed and did not get H1 approval but not much for students searching for jobs. They don't allow you to extend your OPT if you somehow loose your job in the 11th months. In this case, you will have just 30 days to find a new job and b in status.

Please, correct me if I am wrong .

 

 

 

Perrybhadra,

I am not currenty on OPT so could nt tell you in detail about 3 terms of extension.  from what i read and know, 90 days applies during your first year of OPT and additional 30 days apply after you extend your OPT to 29 months.  however, i am not sure if you can use 120 days after getting your OPT extension.  my guess is, you can not have more than 30 days during your OPT extension period.  best person to contact is always international office or those who recently extended their OPT. 

this is not being unfriendly. just a way to close prevailing loop-hole in the system.

although OPT was intended for "employment in the field of studies" numerous people were working on odd jobs throughout the period. (for whatever reason)

STEM extension clealy wants the employer to use everify and only allows currently employed students. [ here employed = in the field of studies ] hence, there is no extension if you are not employed. i.e. if you are laid off at the end of 12 months OPT then you cannot apply for the 17mths extension.

OK, here's a deal I have to offer...

As for me, I am on OPT, a nursing graduate. Unfortunately nursing major did not make it to the STEM list. The STEM extension were for those who were deemed extremely talented in the fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics...maybe nursing or any of you all degrees are not considered to be STEM. However, in the OPT extention release document they do mention "critical shortage areas that cannot be filled by US workers..." and here is something you all maybe able to do, might not mean anything but its something we all can definitely try! Please go to:

http://www.ice.gov/sevis/stemlist.htm

This website provides a list of STEM degrees...I do not want you to read the whole list but notice in the third paragraph they say:

"To suggest a change to the list of STEM designated degrees, write to SEVIS.Source@dhs.gov, with STEM Code Change Request in the subject line. Please include your name, phone number, organizational affiliation, the code(s) you would like to see added and the rationale for the addition. Change requests will be reviewed by ICE in conjunction with the Department of Education and other advisors."

What I did and urged my friends to do was we e-mailed the above address to add my major to the STEM list and gave a rationale as mentioned above. The STEM code for nursing is 51. 1601 and put this in the subject line to be added to the STEM list so we can get the 29 months OPT as well because of retrogression in nursing, and due to this fact why employers are not hiring us.

Again, this might not do anything, but we would have at least tried!!!

The STEM code for your major can be found on your I-20 where it says OPT was applied for. The organizational affiliation would be your college/university. As for me, I don't know how long I will have to wait until regrogression lifts, no one knows how many years, they even removed schedule A for nurses because of overwhelming number of applications more than they could handle. This means I will have to go back to school to maintain my status...like for many of you...This would at least give me some time throughout retrogression and hopefully find an employer who will hire me...

I already e-mailed them (please make it high priority) and please make sure you type the address as it is shown or else it will not go through.

Also, I would like to know who all e-mailed, so just reply to this thread and simply say that you e-mailed and please mention your degree. If you think this is a good idea, then do not limit it, ask your friends to do so too...

Again, the worst that could happen is they might not do anything about it, but who knows?

Thanks!