Pre-completion OPT hours?

[Turtle08]

Hi all,

A quick question if anyone knows. My international student advisor left our school after applying for pre-completion opt for me. I have now recieved the work authorisation but the new international co-ordinator is a secretary who has been pulled from another job to fill in and she knows nothing about immigration, or international students. She cannot answer my questions, I tried to call USCIS who said all they could answer was all info is given to student advisors and to speak to them!!

So my questions are these.

1)How many hours can I work in the term time I think I read online it is 20 hours a week is this flexable at all could I do 2 twelve hour shifts so 24 hours one week and then 1 twelve hour shift the next week so it averages to 60 hours in a month.

2) How do the goverment track the hours am I responsible to send them anything or does the employer have to fill out paperwork?

3) Pre-completion opt is counted as half time so at 20 hours a week you do 6 months work in 1 year does this mean you can do pre-copletion opt for 2 years part time? My work authorisation is for 1 year do I re apply after that year for the second year of half time?

Any help you guys can give me is much appreciated.

Ruth x

[suzanne4, RN]

You may not work more than 20 hours per week, this means that two 12 hour shifts will not be permissable. What it comes down to is that you need to submit all of your paycheck stubs to the federal government when you will be applying for the green card, and they will review each and every one of them. If any do not meet the requirements, then they can automatically deny your petition. The only time that you are permitted more than the 20 hours per week is during school vacations and only then. Anything else and you can find yourself getting denied from any visa for the US to work here later on.

Much has already been written on this topic, please just do a search.

What you are actually speaking of is the CPT, the OPT is actually for when you are done with your program. Any hours that are towards the OPT will be deducted for the time that you have for your OPT and that is never renewed. You will only have the one year maximum with it.