This guide is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney–client relationship. Rules change and vary by state — verify current requirements with official sources or a licensed attorney.
F-1 is a status you maintain rather than a document you hold. The visa in the passport only gets you to the border; what keeps you lawfully present afterwards is an accurate SEVIS record, a full course of study at the school that issued your Form I-20, and employment that stays inside the narrow lanes the regulations allow.
The most valuable of those lanes is Optional Practical Training — twelve months of work authorization tied to your field of study, with a further twenty-four months available to graduates of qualifying STEM programmes who work for E-Verify employers. This guide covers both, and flags a structural change to F-1 admissions that takes effect in September 2026.
Key takeaways
- Status depends on the SEVIS record staying active: full-time enrolment, a valid I-20, and reporting address and programme changes to your designated school official.
- OPT provides up to 12 months of work authorization per higher education level, used before or after completing the programme.
- Post-completion OPT allows a maximum of 90 days of unemployment; the STEM extension adds 60 more, for 150 days total.
- The 24-month STEM extension requires a qualifying degree on the DHS STEM list, an employer enrolled in E-Verify, and a Form I-983 training plan.
- A DHS final rule published in July 2026 replaces open-ended "duration of status" admission with fixed periods of up to four years, effective 15 September 2026.
What "maintaining status" actually requires
The obligations are unglamorous and mostly administrative, which is precisely why they get missed.
- Enrol in and complete a full course of study each required term, with reduced course loads only where a designated school official has authorised them in advance for a permitted reason.
- Keep the I-20 accurate — programme end date, major, funding, and dependents all appear on it.
- Report a change of address, and any change of programme or education level, within the reporting window your school gives you.
- Work only where authorised: on-campus employment within permitted hours, or off-campus employment specifically authorised through curricular practical training, OPT, or a recognised hardship or emergency provision.
- Transfer the SEVIS record properly when moving between schools, rather than simply enrolling somewhere new.
The record itself lives in SEVIS, the system that connects schools, DHS, and consular posts. A terminated SEVIS record is not a paperwork inconvenience — it ends lawful status and can start the clock on unlawful presence, with consequences for future visas.
Watch the calendar: The structural change coming in September 2026 matters here. Under the final rule DHS published in July 2026, F-1 students will be admitted for a fixed period of up to four years rather than for "duration of status," and staying beyond the I-94 end date will require an extension application to USCIS with biometrics. The rule also shortens the post-completion departure grace period from 60 days to 30. Confirm current requirements on Study in the States before making plans that straddle the effective date.
Working during the degree
Three routes exist before graduation. On-campus employment is available without separate USCIS authorization, subject to hour limits during terms. Curricular practical training covers work that is an integral part of an established curriculum — an internship for credit, a required practicum — and is authorised by the school on the I-20 rather than by USCIS.
Pre-completion OPT is the third route, and the least used, because it draws down the same twelve-month allowance that most students would rather save for after graduation. Part-time pre-completion OPT is deducted at half rate; full-time is deducted day for day. Time authorised counts as used whether or not the student actually works.
Post-completion OPT: the twelve months
Post-completion OPT is the standard route from student to worker. The employment must relate to the major field of study, must be at least twenty hours a week, and requires an Employment Authorization Document issued on Form I-765 after the school recommends OPT in SEVIS.
- Request the recommendation. The designated school official enters the OPT recommendation in SEVIS and issues an updated I-20.
- File the I-765. Filing generally opens 90 days before the programme end date and closes 60 days after it, and must follow the SEVIS recommendation within the window the regulations allow.
- Wait for the card. Work cannot begin before the EAD start date, even if a job offer is in hand and the employer is impatient.
- Track unemployment. Days without qualifying employment accumulate against a 90-day cap. Exceeding it ends the authorization.
- Report changes. Employer name, address, and any interruption must be reported to the school, which updates SEVIS.
A quirk worth planning around: self-employment and unpaid work can qualify in some circumstances, but both draw scrutiny, and unpaid roles must be genuinely lawful under labour law. Volunteer arrangements assembled purely to stop the unemployment clock are a poor idea.
The 24-month STEM extension
Graduates of programmes on the DHS STEM designated degree programme list may seek twenty-four additional months, producing up to three years of practical training from a single degree. The conditions are stricter than for basic OPT, and they bind the employer as much as the student.
| Feature | Post-completion OPT | STEM OPT extension |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Up to 12 months | 24 additional months |
| Employer conditions | Work related to the field of study | E-Verify enrolment and a bona fide employer-employee relationship |
| Training plan | Not required | Form I-983 with goals, supervision, and evaluation methods |
| Unemployment allowance | 90 days | 60 more days, 150 cumulative |
| Reporting | Employment changes | Six-month validation reports and self-evaluations at 12 and 24 months |
The Form I-983 is not a formality. It must explain how the role teaches specific skills tied to the degree, who supervises, and how performance will be measured. Compensation must be comparable to similarly situated U.S. workers. Material changes — a new employer identification number, a drop below twenty hours, a new worksite — require an updated plan.
Because the extension effectively conscripts the employer into a compliance role, small companies sometimes decline. Employers weighing whether to participate should also understand their parallel verification duties, which we cover in I-9 compliance for U.S. employers.
What comes after training
Practical training is a bridge, not a destination. The most travelled onward route is H-1B sponsorship, which is why the cap-gap provision exists: an F-1 student whose employer timely files a cap-subject H-1B petition requesting an October 1 start can have F-1 status and OPT work authorization extended automatically while the petition is pending. Unemployment days keep accruing during cap-gap, so a gap in employment is still a risk.
Selection is not guaranteed, and the annual registration process is its own subject — see the H-1B cap registration and lottery and our broader H-1B guide. Students who are not selected sometimes change to another category, return to school, or pursue an employer-sponsored immigrant petition; those who came through an exchange programme rather than a degree programme face a different set of constraints, discussed in our article on J-1 exchange visitors and the two-year home residency requirement.
Where a student's plan involves stacking several statuses in sequence, or where a SEVIS record has already been terminated, the analysis stops being administrative and starts being legal. That is the point to bring in individual immigration services rather than relying on general campus advice, useful as it is.
Frequently asked questions
Can I travel abroad while my OPT application is pending?
It is risky. Re-entry generally requires a valid F-1 visa, a properly endorsed I-20, and — after the programme ends — evidence of the OPT filing or approval. Students who leave before the EAD is issued may struggle to return, and a job offer letter is often expected at the border. Talk to your school official before booking.
Does a second master's degree give me another 12 months of OPT?
Only if it is at a higher education level. The allowance is granted per level — bachelor's, master's, doctoral — so a second degree at the same level does not reset the clock. A doctorate after a master's generally does. The STEM extension is separately limited and cannot be used twice for the same qualifying degree.
Must my STEM OPT employer be the one that sponsors my H-1B?
No. The two are independent. A STEM OPT employer must be enrolled in E-Verify and sign the training plan, but nothing requires that employer to file an H-1B petition, and nothing prevents a different employer from doing so — subject to the timing rules that govern cap-gap protection.
What happens if I exceed the unemployment limit?
The authorization is considered to have ended, and continued presence in the United States becomes a status problem rather than a job-search problem. Options at that stage usually involve changing status, transferring to a new programme of study, or departing. Track the days carefully; the count includes weekends and holidays between jobs.
Can F-1 students start a company?
Ownership is possible, but working for the company you own requires authorization like any other employment. During OPT, self-employment can qualify if the business relates to the field of study and the student has the licences needed to operate. STEM OPT is stricter and generally does not accommodate a student who is effectively their own supervisor.
Staying ahead of the rules
Build a habit around three checkpoints: enrolment each term, the I-20 end date, and any employment start or stop. Almost every serious F-1 problem traces back to one of those three going unreported. Keep copies of every I-20 you are ever issued, because years later a green card or naturalization case may ask you to reconstruct your status history.
With the shift to fixed admission periods arriving in September 2026, add a fourth checkpoint: the "admit until" date on your I-94, which will start doing real work. Broader background on the categories students eventually move into is collected in our immigration law hub.
