<p>I'm hoping to get an internship somewhere in the US next summer. I'm an incoming freshman and an international though, and so I'm not familiar with immigration procedures when it comes to internships.</p>
<p>I've heard about Curricular Practice Training. What exactly is this and how do I obtain permission to complete my internship? It will most likely be an unpaid internship. </p>
<p>Any other advice pertaining to internationals and internships would be highly appreciated.</p>
<p>For unpaid internships (i.e. nobody gets paid, whether US citizen or international) I think you’re free to do the internship w/o more paperwork. It’s like volunteering.</p>
<p>Everybody gets 12 months of OPT to use either during or after the degree, so if you use say 3 months of OPT as an undergrad then you have 9 months left to work in the US after graduation. STEM grads can get a 17-month extension on their OPT.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, Agneisse! It’s definitely clearer now. I don’t think I’ll fall under CPT status since I’m only a freshman and will not take any internship-mandatory classes for a while. </p>
<p>Just to clarify, if I take an unpaid internship it will not count as one of the 12 months of OPT? And also, would an internship that doesn’t pay but does gives a travel bursar fall under a paid internship? Sorry if these are dumb questions haha…</p>
<p>No, unpaid internships don’t count as OPT - the same way that if you volunteered at a local hospital (or whatever) it doesn’t count as OPT. As long as it is an internship that doesn’t pay anybody, then it is not OPT and will not take away from the 12 months.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’m not sure about travel stipends, and your college’s international office would probably have better advice.</p>
<p>A travel stipend is required to be reported as income to the IRS. Because of that, you would need work authorization, since you are technically getting “paid”. What you might want to do is see if the company will give you a “scholarship” equal to the cost of travel, which would not be considered as getting paid.</p>
<p>On-campus work does not count towards your OPT. You may work up to 20 hours a week while classes are in session and full-time during breaks. </p>
<p>STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. There is an official list of STEM majors who qualify for OPT extensions. However, I heard that most employers are reluctant to hire people on STEM OPT extension because the employer would have to register with the Department of Homeland Security. In contrast, employers can hire graduates on regular OPT without much inconvenience.</p>
<p>[List</a> of STEM majors](<a href=“http://www.ice.gov/sevis/stemlist.htm]List”>http://www.ice.gov/sevis/stemlist.htm). The one good thing about the STEM extension is that it will allow you another try at a H1B visa the following year if you missed out in the lottery the first time round so if the employer really wanted you they could register for the 17 additional months, though as barium said most don’t like dealing with government immigration bureaucracy more than they have to.</p>