{"id":1036,"date":"2014-08-28T23:46:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T23:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/?page_id=1036"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:29:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:29:03","slug":"opt","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/international-students\/resources\/employment\/opt\/","title":{"rendered":"Optional Practical Training (OPT)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"intro\">In some cases, F-1 students who meet certain requirements may qualify for off-campus employment (OPT), as long as it is related to their field of study.<\/p>\n<h3>Eligibility<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4>Post-completion OPT<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>You<strong>\u00a0do not<\/strong>\u00a0need a job offer to apply for post-completion OPT.<\/li>\n<li>You need to be a degree-seeking student who has been in full-time student status for at least\u00a0<strong>one academic year<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Cannot have completed 12 months or more of full-time CPT.\u00a0 Part-time CPT does not affect eligibility.<\/li>\n<li>Must be physically present in the US, in F-1 status, to apply.<\/li>\n<li>Have not previously had 12 months of OPT for same level of degree.<\/li>\n<li>Exchange students do not qualify for OPT, as they will not obtain a degree from BSU.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4>Pre-completion OPT<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Federal regulations do not required you to have a job offer to apply for pre-completion OPT. However, the IPC strongly recommends that you do not apply for pre-completion OPT without a job offer, as you risk wasting your post-completion OPT time if you are not able to find a job.<\/li>\n<li>You need to be a degree-seeking student who has been in full-time student status for at least\u00a0<strong>one academic year<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Cannot have completed 12 months or more of full-time CPT.\u00a0 Part-time CPT does not affect eligibility.<\/li>\n<li>Must be physically present in the US, in F-1 status, to apply.<\/li>\n<li>Have not previously had 12 months of OPT for same level of degree.<\/li>\n<li>Exchange students do not qualify for OPT, as they will not<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<section class=\"content-body\">\n<div class=\"row row\"><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h3>Maintaining your Status while on OPT<\/h3>\n<p>Remember, while you are in the U.S. on OPT, you are still in student status. Therefore, <em>you must\u00a0keep in contact with your DSO<\/em> in order for her to keep your status up-to-date in SEVIS.<\/p>\n<p>You must inform the DSO within ten days of any of the following changes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Change in address or contact information<\/li>\n<li>change in employer&#8217;s address or contact information<\/li>\n<li>any change in employment status or employer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In some cases, F-1 students who meet certain requirements may qualify for off-campus employment (OPT), as long as it is related to their field of study. Eligibility Post-completion OPT You\u00a0do not\u00a0need a job offer to apply for post-completion OPT. You need to be a degree-seeking student who has been in full-time student status for at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":49,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-1036","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3198,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1036\/revisions\/3198"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/services\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}