Maintain F-1 Status on Post-Graduation OPT

1. Email image of OPT EAD to OGS

Once you receive the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) from USCIS, please email images of the front and back of your card to your IS Advisor.

2. Set up your SEVP Portal account

Within one week after your approved OPT start date, you will receive an email invitation sent to your NetID@georgetown.edu inbox from do-not-reply.SEVP@ice.dhs.gov. If you do not receive this email, check your Spam, Junk, and Trash folders in case of mistaken filtering.

Create your account and use this system to uphold the conditions of your F-1 status after graduation. In the event of an SEVP Portal outage or malfunction, email your IS Advisor to provide the required information. OGS remains available and can update active F-1 records during OPT.

Users who already set up their account but have been locked out can request a password reset on the login page. If you did not set up your SEVP Portal when OPT began, email your IS Advisor for assistance and see our current processing time.

If OGS has reset your SEVP Portal and you did not receive an email from do-not-reply.SEVP@ice.dhs.gov in your NetID@georgetown.edu inbox, visit the U.S. government website for SEVP Portal Help.

3. Log any change to U.S. address and/or phone number

Report new contact information within 10 calendar days after the change using the SEVP Portal. This system separate from the USCIS Online Account used to apply for OPT. Address updates logged in your USCIS Online Account will not reach your SEVIS record and vice versa.

If your U.S. address changes before your OPT authorization begins, make the update in GUExperience under the Local Off Campus label to send the data to your F-1 record. Once OPT begins, GUExperience no longer transmits this information to SEVIS.

4. Report all OPT activities via SEVP Portal

Between your Form I-20 program end date and your OPT EAD start date, you must not engage in any paid or unpaid work/internship activities while physically present in the U.S.

Within your OPT EAD authorized dates, you must use the SEVP Portal to log each role performed while physically present in the U.S., no matter how short the duration or small the hourly commitment.

All OPT roles must be directly related to the major field(s) of study listed on your current Form I-20. The SEVP Portal requires these details for each OPT activity:

• Organization name
• Organization address
• Part time or full time
• Start date
• End date (only required once you stop working)
• Explanation of direct relationship between OPT role and major field(s) of study on current Form I-20
  • See sample explanations (PDF).

Take a screen capture of your SEVP Portal account data each time you make an update. Keep additional detailed documentation of all OPT activities for your permanent personal records. This may include but is not limited it to job offer letter(s), pay slips, performance reviews, etc.

The SEVP Portal does not allow students to log a start date more than 10 days in the past. If you miss this deadline, email your IS Advisor for assistance and see our current processing time.

See the OGS OPT FAQs for detailed guidance on how to report particular employment situations.

5. Manage up to 90 calendar days of OPT unemployment

OPT allows maximum 90 calendar unemployment days within the authorization dates on your EAD card. Unemployment days help to facilitate OPT with flexibility for when the first job begins and time off between roles.

OPT unemployment days may be accrued in increments of any size. You must carefully track your OPT unemployment and prevent day 91 by notifying OGS either to complete your SEVIS record when you exit the U.S. or to transfer your F-1 status for further study. How to count OPT unemployment days:

• OPT EAD start date = July 1
• First OPT job begins for 20 hr/wk = July 10

This student used 9 days of OPT unemployment before their first role began. The fact that there was a weekend and the July 4 holiday within this period does not impact the amount of unemployment used. If October 15 is the student’s last day in this first OPT role, then October 16 is the student’s 10th day of OPT unemployment.

20 hours per week is the minimum to avoid OPT unemployment days. A student whose role is 10 hours per week is authorized to perform this role and must log it in their SEVP Portal. However, the student accrues OPT unemployment days until they begin to work 20 hr/wk. You may reach the 20 hr/wk threshold for avoiding OPT unemployment days with a combination of multiple simultaneous part time roles.

Part time vs. full time is defined differently for specific purposes. When F-1 students report OPT activities to DHS, a job of more than 20 hours per week is full time. For example, an employer may consider their 25 hr/wk worker as part time, but this student should indicate the role is full time in the SEVP Portal.

Unemployment within the 90-day limit does not impact the length of OPT authorization: A student who uses none or only a few OPT unemployment days stops working at their EAD end date the same as a student who uses most or all of their allowed days.

OPT is meant for use in the United States, but many students travel internationally during OPT while remaining employed, whether on personal leave granted by their employer or a brief international assignment as part of their U.S. employment. An unemployed student who travels outside the U.S. continues to accrue unemployment days while abroad until they either begin and report a new OPT role or notify OGS to end their OPT.

For eligible students, any unused unemployment days in the first year of post-graduation OPT are combined with 60 additional days from the start of the 24-Month STEM OPT Extension.

6. Email OGS when OPT ends before EAD expiration

Many students ultimately use less than their full authorized amount of OPT. With timely email notice to your IS Advisor, no stigma results from ending OPT early. For example, when you:

• Exit the U.S. and will not return to continue OPT.
• Begin a different status in the U.S.

If you are admitted to and will begin a new program of study, you must end OPT employment and obtain a new Form I-20 for this program (normally, via F-1 SEVIS transfer). Report your final day of OPT activities via the SEVP Portal, and email OGS to provide your admission letter, and the SEVIS school code for your new program.

Students who maintain F-1 status until their OPT EAD end date have a 60-day grace period to remain in the U.S. and “prepare for departure” (or transfer their SEVIS record for further study). This grace period does not allow readmission to the U.S. after travel outside the U.S.

Students eligible for the 24-Month STEM OPT Extension must obtain the OGS recommendation and file the USCIS application before their initial period of post-graduation OPT expires.

OGS F-1 advising remains available during OPT via published resources, email, and meeting with a Designated School Official (DSO). Failure to comply with your responsibilities during OPT may result in loss of immigration status.

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