<p>Hey, I am an international student who will be attending a university this fall. I know off- campus employment is not allowed during academic sessions for us. But, can we work off-campus during summer and is that perfectly legal??? I would be glad if anyone could comment on that.</p>
<p>i think you can work off-campus on paid employment during term and summer but it is subject to the 1 year OPT limit.</p>
<p>Anyone else please!!!!</p>
<p>And ya invictus, what do you mean by the OPT limit? Please!</p>
<p>Working off campus during the summer is "perfectly" legal as long as you apply for an OPT (optional practical training)/work permit before working. They're not supposed to be hard to come by, though you need a letter stating the period of your employment before you apply, and I think it was suggested that we (at Brown) hand in applications before mid-march, early april, maybe earlier.</p>
<p>I am not sure about the during the semester thing, I have conflicting reports from different people, though I am pretty sure part time employment, if legal should not be cutting into your OPT limit.</p>
<p>As for the OPT limit, the F-1 visa regulations state that you have 1 year of OPT time per education level which you can use piecemeal or whole, to put this into perspective, that essentially means you can either save up all of it, and work for a year after graaduating, or work 3 months a year, each of your 4 years, and the DCIS would take those as being equivalent. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>this, of course, excludes unpaid and other such informal agreements, that may or may not include 'allowance' 'stipends' and such.</p>
<p>It also excludes working for your own university, doing anything "educational" for which you aren't paying, and I think also most research done for any university does not come under the OPT limits, though I am admittedly unsure.
Aurojit</p>