If you are traveling outside of the United States while waiting for your OPT to be approved before you complete your degree, take the following items with you:

• Your passport (valid for six months from the date of your re-entry)
• A signed I-20 (remember that each travel signature is valid for only 6 months during the period of OPT)
• A valid F-1 visa stamp

If you are traveling outside of the United States while waiting for your OPT to be approved after you have already completed your degree, take the following items with you:

• Your passport (valid for six months from the date of your re-entry)
• A signed I-20 (remember that each travel signature is valid for only six months during the period of OPT)
• A valid F-1 visa stamp
• An I-797C (receipt notice from USCIS)

OIS recommends particular caution when traveling outside of the United States after you have graduated, while you are waiting for your OPT authorization. Your U.S. immigration status is determined by your I-94 document, and because the I-94 information is no longer current when you depart from the United States, establishing your F-1 status while outside the country will be difficult if USCIS has questions about your application. If USCIS sends a request for additional information about an aspect of your application and it is not resolved in a timely fashion, your application will be denied.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), you may travel back to the United States while your OPT is pending in order to search for employment. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) explains this in detail on its website.

If you have the proper documentation for your particular situation, you may be eligible to depart from and re-enter the United States after a brief absence.

Dates of travel outside of the United States while employed may not count as days of unemployment. If you are traveling outside of the United States for a vacation or for business—while continuing to be employed in your major field of study during that travel—those dates outside of the United States do not need to be tracked or reported as days of unemployment.

It can be very difficult to apply for an F-1 visa stamp while you are on OPT. If your visa stamp is expired, or will soon expire, keep this in mind. Please feel free to discuss your plans with an international student advisor at OIS before you travel.

If you are traveling while on OPT, you are advised to carry the following:

• Your I-20, signed for travel (remember that each travel signature is valid for only six months during the period of OPT)
• A valid F-1 visa stamp
• A passport valid for at least six months into the future from the date of re-entry to the United States
• A valid OPT card
• A job offer letter or letter verifying employment. If you are traveling for business or on a vacation from the job, ensure that the letter clarifies this.

OPT is a benefit available to people with F-1 status. It is not a work visa. You will remain in F-1 status during OPT.

A one-time, 24-month extension of OPT is only possible for students who are completing a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in DHS-designated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. If your degree is in a non-STEM field, the maximum amount of time for which you are eligible for OPT is 12 months for each higher degree level. See the information about the OPT STEM extension above.

As an F-1 student on OPT, it is your responsibility to keep track of employment-related information for the duration of the OPT authorization. You will need to keep very careful track of your employment: dates, employer names, addresses, and supervisors’ contact information. In addition, you are required to report any/all employment to our office and document the connection of that employment to your major area of study through Atlas.

To assist you in keeping track of your employment for your own records, you can download an Excel spreadsheet from OIS to help you maintain accurate records. Filling out the information in the spreadsheet will help you keep track of the names of your employers and the dates when you worked for them, as well as the dates of unemployment that you may be accruing. The Excel form is for your own record-keeping purposes and should not be submitted to OIS.

A branch of the U.S. government (the Student and Exchange Visitor Program or SEVP) has a portal that allows you to update your OPT employer information and address. You will receive an email invitation from do-not-reply.SEVP@ice.dhs.gov after your OPT is approved and your start date is in the past.

However, you do not need to do anything. Using the portal is optional, and since there is limited functionality, you still need to use Atlas for most of your reporting obligations.

Thus, we suggest using only Atlas to manage all your OPT reporting obligations.

You may accrue up to 90 days of unemployment during your OPT.

Any period of unemployment will count toward this total. This means that any days for which you are not employed or on payroll count toward the 90-day total.

If your employer files a timely H-1B petition before your OPT expires and you are granted cap-gap coverage, you are still permitted only a total of 90 days of unemployment for the entire period of OPT. If you have an approved STEM OPT extension, you have a total of 150 days of unemployment.

Days spent outside of the United States while unemployed still count toward the 90-day total.

If you near your 90th day of unemployment while on OPT, it is best to make plans to depart the United States, apply for a change of status, or make preparations to begin a new program of study. Take action early enough so that by the end of the 90th day of unemployment, you have another option already in progress. If you are unemployed for more than 90 days, you may be considered to be out of status.

OIS will not take any adverse action on your SEVIS record regarding unemployment. OIS’s responsibility is to report interruptions in employment that you report to OIS. Failure to report that information, or the accrual of more than 90 days of unemployment, may result in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) not approving future benefits or requests or terminating your SEVIS record.

You may work as a volunteer or unpaid intern, as long as this does not violate any labor laws. This unpaid work must also be in your major field of study. You will be required to provide evidence from your employer that you worked at least 21 hours per week during the period of employment.

You must be careful not to “volunteer” without pay in positions that U.S. citizens would be paid for. This rule is designed to protect you, the employer, and other workers. The U.S. Department of Labor provides information on the Fair Labor Standards Act on its website.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) strongly recommends that you not travel during your cap-gap extension. USCIS may consider your application to change from F-1 to H-1B as abandoned and deny the change of status. You need to discuss all travel plans with your employer.

No. However, we recommend that you purchase non-IU health insurance coverage after your IU policy ends.

If you graduate between January 1 and July 31, your IU policy expires July 31. If you graduate between August 1 and December 31, your IU policy expires December 31.

If you are on OPT but register at IU any time during your OPT period, you will be billed automatically for IU health insurance. If you would like to waive this insurance, you are required to provide proof of comparable health insurance to OIS.

Yes, you must pay state and federal income taxes.

Most large cities will have tax assistance services to help you with this process. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is an example of such assistance. When dealing with a tax service center, ensure that the tax consultant classifies you properly as a resident or non-resident for tax filing purposes (different from immigration status).

If you have been in the United States for fewer than five years, you may be exempt from social security taxes. Pages 5 and 42 of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Publication 519 on the IRS website clarify this. View Publication 519 here.

If you begin study at another education level, your OPT authorization is terminated with the notification of a new degree program in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) or with a transfer of your SEVIS record to another institution. You are supposed to work full time in your major field of study while on OPT.

If you are pursuing full-time work in your major field of study and wish to take a class or two, there should not be a problem with this, provided that you do not begin a new education level. If you are a graduate student, and you have applied for OPT and your department at IU requires that you enroll in G901 or a similar research course, discuss this with an advisor at OIS during your OPT Intake appointment to ensure your enrollment will not affect your OPT application.

If you plan to begin a new academic program at IU, you will need to fill out the e-form called “New Degree Program” in Atlas.

If you wish to transfer to another college or university in the United States, you must fill out a “SEVIS Transfer Out” e-form request in Atlas.

These e-form requests must be submitted before you begin a new program, and the OIS approval for these requests must be granted no later than the end of the 60-day grace period following completion of OPT. OPT will automatically end when a new I-20 is created for a new program of study (at IU or at another institution).

Email is the primary way for our office to contact you while you’re on OPT, so you must have a current email address on file with us at all times.

You have a few options for email after you complete your program of study:

• Learn what happens to your IU account when you leave IU.
• You can request a free IU alumni email account. The IU Alumni Association (IUAA) provides access to this service on its website.

IU’s University Human Resources website provides IU-specific information about E-Verify.