F1 Visa Foreign Students & How You Can Work in the US on the OPT Program

many students come to the us to study via the f1 visa for undergraduate, graduate or phd level degrees. The us is generally known and recognized as having the best colleges and universities in the world although maybe not the cheapest. Then from that many students use the f1 student visa as stepping stone to work full time in the us on a visa like the h1b visa.

now there are many myths about what the f1 visa opt program is an isn't so we will try and clear all the main ones here so you are well prepared in your us immigration journey.

there are many pros and cons of studying in the us but certainly one of the biggest benefits of the f1 visa apart from the generally excellent education you will receive is that it allows you to work in the us temporarily on the occupational reasonable and practical environment and training, or more commonly known as opt.

this opt program is often one of the major ways that foreign students eventually get full sponsorship via a visa like the h1b visa as it allows them to seek employment without the employer needing to sponsor them or pay additional costs. Thus they get to trial the foreign worker before committing to sponsoring that person.

additionally from the foreigners perspective they also get to trial an employer and generally the us work lifestyle out. So it also helps them decide firstly if their current employer is a great fit or indeed if that is not the case, then allows them to have some us work experience on their resume. That experience grouped and combined with time to network within the us work and professional group scene is invaluable to finding other work opportunities that may suit you better.

in short f-1 visa students are permitted a total of 12 months towards reasonable and practical environment and training, on being certified by the advisor of the usefulness of the work towards goals of the degree, which can be distributed between curricular reasonable and practical e! nvironme nt and training (cpt) and opt.

cpt is just working while hushed and still study as opposed to following graduation. This permission is granted via the international students office or similar body of the academic institution and like post graduation opt must be in line with the field of study undertaken.