<p>so if you transfer from a community college to a university, you lose your 12 month community college OPT right?</p>
<p>but since you've transferred to a 4 year BA uni course, do you gain another 12 months?</p>
<p>or do you not just lose it altogether?</p>
<p>loathed, the first part of your question is exactly what I have been questioning.</p>
<p>What I can tell you is that you either get another 12 months once you transfer or the remainder of your CC OPT time will carry over to the college. You will NOT lose your OPT eligibility altogether.</p>
<p>I want to add another comment about the OPT for unpaid employment internship issue. I meant to post this a while ago but I lost the link.</p>
<p>DHS regulations say that you need OPT to pursue off-campus employment, but what exactly is considered employment? Unfortunately I have not been able to locate a definition of employment at the DHS or USCIS websites, but since they usually define critical terms precisely, I would be surprised if there were no definition of employment hidden somewhere. For the time being several college websites define employment for OPT and CPT purposes as follows:
[quote]
Employment is any type of work performed or services provided in exchange for money, tuition, fees, books, supplies, room, food or any other benefit. If you receive no pay or other benefit for the work performed and the position is normally an unpaid position, this activity is considered to be volunteer work.
[/quote]
Employment</a> Options for F-1 Students</p>
<p>Using that definition of employment, most unpaid internships would require a work authorization.</p>
<p>I am just wondering if an AA degree counts as a stand-alone degree for OPT purposes or if it is viewed as part of an undergraduate degree." I am intricate by it too . I dont understand why they would do such a thing to CC students if they transfer to another school. ( BA is > than AA, right?) If you see a question mark after one of my notes, it means that the question was not answered thus it needs more explanation. </p>
<p>Bar!lum and Loathed this is what I found on the DHS s site.
(B) Termination of practical training. Authorization to engage in optional practical training employment is automatically terminated when the student transfers to another school or begins study at another educational level. Optional</a> Practical Training</p>
<p>transfers to another school? Now the problem is that it does not say if they consider a Bachelor degree higher than a AA nor if by transferring they mean students from a community college or students who transfer from a 4 year college to another 4 year institution. </p>
<p>Loathed, are you in the US? You could ask your international advisor about it if you are attending a CC. I think that the best answer about the transfer question would be from DHS, an international advisor or students who have been in this situation. You should also do some research on the IRS s site too.</p>
<p>My definition for High skilled worker outside of the box does not really need your approval because its just my opinion. Your are not an officer of the DHS nor an employer so I guess that its not worth arguing over this because as far as I know none of us are the policy makers for DHS or prospective employers, and no matter how we define HS skilled, the employers and DHS will have their own definition of it. </p>
<p>I really appreciate out-of-the-box thinking but not in the context of immigration and labor laws. I dont remember anyone saying that this is how HS W is defined in terms of immigration and labor</p>
<p>Its good that you took the chill pill because you interpreted my post as bible verses while I never claimed any absolute true behind them.</p>
<p>When an undergraduate student goes to graduate school, the OPT that he has when he was pursuing the Bach.. degree expires but he got a new one when he goes to graduate school. So even if AA was considered as < than Bach - I am not saying that it is- so why wouldn't the CC student get a new OPT too given that a Bach student gets a new one when he goes to grad?
Does any of you know the answer?</p>
<p>Wow, thank you all guys. I've read everything and though I believe that there are still things I don't understand I became aware of what the whole thing is all about. However, what made me start this thread is this article Undergrad</a> Profile
The international student at Robins business school- U of Richmond clearly says that we are on our own in the job market. It doesn't sound encouraging, does it :(</p>
<p>Grande Antilles, someone posted a link to an article saying that certain highly skilled workers are eligible for 17 more months of OPT and asked what a highly skilled worker was in that context. We were clearly talking about laws and policies in which context "highly skilled" does have a very strict definition that has little to do with what an employer would consider a very precious employee. Feel free to post your opinion and out-of-the-box examples, but please explicitly label them as such.</p>
<p>I guess I could let the discussion about CC students rest because none of us seems to have any new evidence but I would just like to comment on this: "why wouldn't the CC student get a new OPT too given that a Bach student gets a new one when he goes to grad" - undergrad and grad are two distinct educational levels, but AA and BA degrees are not: an AA is the same as the first two years of a BA! Student X goes to a CC for two years to get an AA, then transfers to a 4-year college, gets two years worth of transfer credit for his AA and needs another two years to finish bis BA. Why should student X get more OPT than student Y who went straight to a 4-year college for four years? Both were in total 4 years in college to get a BA degree. Again, I might be wrong on this issue but I spent some time searching and I have not found a single CC website that explicitly says "your OPT time will start over once you transfer to a 4-year college." Does anyone know a website that clearly states this?</p>
<p>Hey I never found any sites that said that your OPT will be over or will be renewed when you transfer to a four year school from a community college. I only wrote that the DHS said that if you transfer, your OPT will be over but as it is well written in my two last posts, I don't know if they include CC student in this transfer policy and I don't know if they consider Bach< AA. Unfortunately I am not the one who write the rule for DHS and I bet that the students here are smart enough to check what is on the site so they can try to understand all the regulation for themselves.</p>
<p>Guys, the Homeland security and the USCIS have their sites so you can go there and read everything you need. If some of them are not clear, you can contact them. Sometimes when you email them, they would tell you to talk to your international advisor. If some of you are not in college yet, you can still email the international student advisor at your future college and ask all the questions that you want. They can give you a better answer than I and given that they have hands on experience with the OPT , they will not just interpret the regulation like Bible verses and try to tell you ten times that their definition of the law is the best one. Just contact them because they will not be assuming what a policy means but they will give you rational explanation. They are here to help you.</p>
<p>HEY!
As the battle rages on, let me express my love! for somebody who has done yeoman service on this board. I find her posts quite cute for a non-english one. And absolutely privileged are all those who are looking for guidance. Oh! I really like her.</p>
<p>"I only wrote that the DHS said that if you transfer, your OPT will be over" I would like to clarify that statement. Unless I completely misread the following comment by ICE, transfer students only lose OPT that was granted by their old college but they can re-apply for OPT at their new college:</p>
<p>
[quote]
6.6. What is the impact of transfers on employed students?</p>
<p>On campus employment</p>
<p>Students can work on campus only at the school that controls their SEVIS record. With DSO permission, students can work on campus at the transfer-out school until the transfer release date.</p>
<p>To work on campus at the transfer-in school, the student must consult with the DSO at the transfer-in school to ensure the work qualifies for on-campus employment. See the On-Campus Employment FAQ for more information.</p>
<p>Work can begin at the transfer-in school after the transfer release date.</p>
<p>Off-campus employment</p>
<p>The authority to work off campus ends when a student transfers. To continue off-campus employment, the student must request the recommendation of the DSO from the transfer-in school and file a new application with USCIS.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>ICE</a> Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)</p>
<p>I second your recommendation that students should go and check for themselves what the policies are and not rely on anything that a stranger tells them in an online forum. But what strangers say might give students an idea where to start looking for information, and I hope that our battle (if you want to call it like that) was helpful for some :)</p>
<p>Bene, bene! I knew that you had to come back B!@m because you always want to have the last word. Well I also hope that our discussion was helpful for some. You might call it battle if you want because apparently thats what you were trying to do.</p>
<p>I wont post anymore in the thread If its not a clear information that does not required the experts opinion . I guess that it wont be fun for you anymore because you wont have anyone to compare your knowledge of the Holly immigration rules with. You have the whole thread for you so you can interpret the oracles of DHS and USCIS for all of us. Now enjoy it and find yourself another person to compete with. Meanwhile, take a cold shower and relax for the rest of the day.
Arivedecci sinora :D</p>
<p>wow!!! this is gr8...entertainment with information. (Infotainment!!!) :)</p>
<p>Thanks guys for researching to give us your opinions. Well, it is all of ours job to search and get the knowledge about this OPT and CPT stuffs.</p>