F-1 Student Reporting Responsibilities
during
Post-Completion Optional Practical Training (OPT)
Introduction
While you were enrolled as a GW student, the International Services Office (ISO) had responsibility for assisting you to maintain lawful F-1 status and for reporting information to the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), such as your enrollment each semester. Throughout the time you are authorized for post-completion OPT, we continue to have responsibility for assisting you and for reporting information to SEVIS that is required for you to maintain lawful status, regardless of your physical location within the U.S.
You are responsible for reporting information to the ISO at various times during your OPT and for making certain we have current, accurate information on you and your OPT activities. The purpose of the information below is to tell you about your responsibilities so that you and we can work together to maintain your lawful F-1 status and to help you have a successful OPT experience.
We have established a Post-Completion OPT Reporting Portal on our web site that will help you to provide us with information when you need to do that. Please visit that portal anytime you need to report OPT information. In addition, we have created iso-opt@gwu.edu as an e-mail address dedicated to post-completion OPT communications. Feel free to communicate with us at that address anytime you have a question about or need assistance with your post-completion OPT rights and responsibilities.
Your Addresses
As an F-1 student, you have always been required to inform us of your U.S. residence address and your permanent address in your home country, and any changes in those addresses within 10 days of the change. We, in turn, have always been required to keep those addresses updated in your SEVIS record. These continue to be requirements while you are on OPT.
You should keep these addresses current and accurate in you personal GWeb account. Each day we electronically check the addresses in all GW international student records, download any changes, and update SEVIS records. So if you keep your addresses up to date in GWeb, you’ll never have to worry about complying with the SEVIS address requirements.
Employment or Other Appropriate OPT “Activity”
During post-completion OPT, you can be employed, engage in an unpaid internship, or perform unpaid volunteer work. You can “work” for one or more businesses, companies, organizations, or agencies simultaneously. You can have a series of OPT “jobs” with different businesses, organizations, or agencies throughout your authorized OPT. You can even be self-employed and perform work for others on a contractual basis.
You are required to report information to the ISO within 10 days of beginning your OPT work or other appropriate activity, and within 10 days of certain significant changes in that work or activity (e.g., changing worksite location, stopping work). The ISO Post-Completion OPT Reporting Portal web page will guide you on what information you need to report and how to report it.
Unemployment
F-1 regulations consider you to be unemployed if you are not engaged in an appropriate OPT activity. If you are engaged in an appropriate activity, you of course don’t have to count weekends or other days off for vacation or illness as days unemployed. But if you’re not engaged in an appropriate OPT activity, each day counts as a day you’re unemployed.
Another exception is that you do not have to count 10 days or less of “unemployment” between two appropriate OPT jobs. Thus, if there are 10 days between the end of an OPT job and the beginning of an appropriate unpaid internship, you do not have to count those days. If there are 11 days between two appropriate OPT activities, you have to count all 11 days as days you were “unemployed.”
You are required to report unemployment to the ISO (a) anytime you are unemployed for more than 10 days and (b) anytime you are unemployed for more than the maximum number of unemployment days permitted by the OPT regulations. The paragraphs below will explain the limits on unemployment, but you need to understand that exceeding the limits means you have violated a term or condition of your lawful F-1 status. You need to contact the ISO anytime you are unemployed and believe you may exceed your unemployment limit.
Initial 12 Months. If you are in your initial 12 months of OPT authorization, the regulations permit you to be unemployed for a maximum of 90 days.
Automatic H-1B “Cap-Gap” Extension. If you are in an H-1B cap-gap extension of your OPT, you may still be unemployed for only 90 days. That means when you add together the time you were unemployed during your initial 12 months and the time you were unemployed during your H-1B cap-gap extension, they cannot total more than 90 days.
STEM Extension. If you have an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) granting you a special OPT extension because you graduated in a selected science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field, the regulations permit you to be unemployed for a maximum of 120 days. However, you must begin counting unemployment days on the date you were authorized for your initial 12 months of post-completion OPT.
Special Reporting Requirements during a STEM Extension of OPT
In addition to the reporting requirements that apply to all F-1 students on post-completion OPT, students who have a STEM extension approved by U.S. CIS are required to send a “validation report” to the ISO every 6 months. You can do this by visiting the ISO Post-Completion OPT Reporting Portal.
Also, there is a requirement that students who have STEM extensions must inform their OPT employers that federal regulations require the employer to notify the ISO within 48 hours if employment should cease. OPT STEM employers can contact us at iso-opt@gwu.edu, our e-mail address reserved for OPT communications.
Records You Should Keep
It is important that you keep written records on each of your post-completion OPT activities so that you have a record of all time spent engaged in appropriate activities. We suggest that when you cease your OPT employment, or when you cease your unpaid internship or volunteer work with an organization or agency, you ask for a letter verifying the beginning and ending dates of your work or activities. This information might be included in a general letter of recommendation, if you believe it would be appropriate to ask for such a letter. Keep a copy of this document with your other important visa and immigration records.
Reporting Summary
You should report to the ISO by following instructions at the Post-Completion OPT Reporting Portal when you:
- Begin an appropriate OPT activity
- End an appropriate OPT activity
- Change from one OPT activity to a different OPT activity
- Change your OPT worksite
- Have been on a STEM extension for 6 months
- Change your residence address
- Change your name
- Leave the U.S.
- Are “unemployed” for more than 10 days
- Are “unemployed” for more than the maximum allowed for you OPT situation
- Change your immigration status while in the U.S.
Further Information, Guidance, and Assistance
You can find information on changes made to the federal OPT regulations effective April 08, 2008, by clicking on the following link: Summary of OPT Regulation Changes. When you need to report on your OPT activities, you can find detailed reporting guidance at the ISO Post-Completion OPT Reporting Portal. In addition, you can write to iso-opt@gwu.edu, our e-mail address dedicated to post-completion OPT communications, and we will quickly respond to you. And of most importance, your International Student and Scholar Advisor and other staff in the GW International Services Office (ISO) are always pleased to provide you with information, guidance, and assistance. You can find contact information on your Advisor at our Advisor School Assignments web page.
We hope that your OPT experience will be enjoyable, growthful, and rewarding. If there is anything we can do to help you, please contact us.
