<p>@2Coll, the ‘first day OPT’ was at the heart of the issue at Tri-Valley (to the rest of our readers, there is no ‘first day OPT’ as 2Coll pointed out :-)). For UNVA, I do not know as I have not followed the case.</p>
<p>OPT has been handled in a different number of ways since my days in F-1 OPT a million years ago. Back then the “School Immigration Advisor” had the stamp to authorize OPT. Then one had to go to the INS Service Center and get it stamped, then they had to mail everything in, and so on. </p>
<p>It is ironic that the focus seems to be on the illegal side of the system while the ‘quasi-legal’ side of the system - numbering many times more - remains unchallenged (i.e. getting H-1’s with credentials that are either grossly inflated, outright made up, and the like).</p>