I have just graduated from F1 in the United States. I have an OPT application receipt, but I have not received an EAD card. I have a job offer letter and my visa has not expired. Can I still enter the

I have just graduated from F1 in the United States. I have an OPT application receipt, but I have not received an EAD card. I have a job offer letter and my visa has not expired. Can I still enter the United States now that I have returned to my country?

Introduction to OPT

OPT is Optional Practical Training. It refers to a status permit that allows students to work legally in the United States after graduation. The licensing department is USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service). You need to apply for an EAD card to start working. Before you get an EAD card, you will not be able to work in the United States legally, and American companies will basically not dare to give it to you. Pay wages, otherwise you are working illegally. OPT generally lasts for a full year, but if your major is STEM recognized by the U.S. government, you have the right to extend it for 17 months, which means your total length is 29 months. I will explain this in detail later. illustrate. An additional thing to add is that one of the benefits of having an EAD card is that you can apply for an SSN even if you don't have a job yet. At the same time, the salary during OPT work is not taxable, which I personally think is great.

Who can apply for OPT?

This is actually relatively simple. As long as you are an F1 student, have graduated with enough credits, and your degree is a program recognized by the United States for more than a full academic year, you can apply for OPT. What needs to be pointed out here is that your CPT time cannot exceed 12 months, otherwise it will affect your OPT application.

Pre-completion OPT and Post-completion OPT

These two are suspected to be OPT before graduation and OPT after graduation. If you are Pre-completion OPT, you must study in the project for one year before you can start working. This requirement is the same as CPT. As a pre-graduation OPT, you must work part-time and cannot work more than 20 hours per week. At the same time, the time of Pre-completion OPT will be included in the total time of your OPT. Therefore, as a student, one year of OPT is very valuable. If you can use it, you must first use CPT.

Various timing issues for OPT application:

The application time for OPT is from 90 days before graduation to 60 days after graduation. After 60 days, you will lose the opportunity to apply for OPT. , and need to return to China immediately. The OPT application task is much larger than that of CPT, so it is recommended that students apply as early as possible. You do not need a job offer to apply for OPT, so many people get the EAD card first and then get the job offer. If you apply early, you will get your EAD card faster. I heard that some people applied as soon as OPT opened and got it in less than two months. But I applied a little late, about 45 days before graduation. I started applying around the same time, and it took about three and a half months to get the EAD card. The later you apply, the longer it takes you to apply, and it feels like the time increases exponentially. Another thing to mention is that the time you start working on OPT is 60 days after graduation at the latest. That is to say, I graduated on December 20th, and I will start working on February 18th at the latest. At the same time, if you are out of work for more than 90 days during the OPT period, your EAD card will become invalid and you will be required to return to China immediately. For example, if you find your first job 60 days after the start date of your EAD card, after you leave your first job and do not have a job for 30 days, you will have to return to China. These 90 days are cumulative. Finally, another thing worth noting about OPT is that after you start working on OPT (within 90 days), you need to send a letter to the school’s International Student Office stating your current workplace and current address. They also have to apply to the US Immigration Service. The teacher also said that some students forgot about this matter when they started working, and ended up being expelled from the country unjustly.

About the work requirements of OPT

What I want to say is that in the first 12 months of work, there are almost no requirements for the work itself. As long as you are working, it will be fine if you do not work cumulatively. The time shall not exceed 3 months. You may think that my major is financial engineering, but I work in an education company and the content I do has nothing to do with financial engineering, so there is no problem. Some found unpaid volunteer jobs and stayed. I even heard that some people spent money to sign up for some companies in Chinatown just to stay for one more year. However, if it is postponed, the work needs to correspond to your major and will be strictly reviewed.

Application process and material delivery:

In fact, the process is roughly divided into three steps:

1. Bring the materials required by your school’s ISSO to apply to ISSO. The new I-20 form recommended by ISSO. Generally, you will be asked to bring your passport, Visa, I-94, all I-20s, and you have downloaded the completed I-765 form and OPT Recommendation Request Form. Our school also has to pay a service fee of $100. (It will be difficult to fill in the I-765 form. If you don’t understand, you must read the form filling instructions of your school’s ISSO or ask the school’s ISSO person)

2. After getting the new I-20 , combined with all other USCIS required materials, and mailed to the specified address.

3. The third step is to wait to get the EAD card. After your materials are sent, you will receive a paper OPT application receipt mailed to you. Keep this receipt. In the future, you will use this receipt to check the progress of your OPT application online and expedite it. While you are waiting to get your EAD card, you can also expedite your application. The complete set of documents for OPT application includes: ?1 IAS-150 form (this varies according to the school's situation, you need to download it from the school's website) ?It needs the signature of your advisor and dean. This advisor is assigned to you when you enroll. For you, if you are not sure, you have to take out the admission application at that time or go directly to the hospital to ask? 2 G-1145 form (on the website of the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, there is e, first serve. I got a job offer and asked me The time to go to work was only a week, and I had not received my OPT when I got the offer. Now I was depressed, because without OPT, I could only work with the international students at the school. The office said it would help me expedite the case. Generally speaking, they would ask if it would be faster to expedite the case themselves. I checked online experiences at the time and they all said that if you contact the school to send an expedited letter, you can directly find the person in charge of your school's case. The staff of the US Immigration Service are relatively efficient. The expedited letter requires your receipt number and a scanned copy of your offer to prove that you already have a job, but you need to get an OPT card as soon as possible. Generally, because there are a large number of people who want to expedite the call, if you call and say it is urgent, your first call will most likely be rejected. But don’t be discouraged. All you need is to keep calling and faxing, as long as you really need to work right away. There is a valid reason. An offer letter is not enough, but also a support letter from your boss. What I need to mention is that if you have a job when you apply, you should directly attach your expedite paper request and offer letter to the mailing materials. If it is urgently approved, go to card production immediately. It only takes a week to get your EAD card. Personally, I think calling USCIS Customer Service is the most effective method. Dial the actual number on the USCIS website. After checking the case status, there is an option "if you have problem with the case or...", select this, and then there is the option "request expedite processing".

I pressed in and waited for a while for a real person to answer.

Share an expedited version:

EXPEDITE REQUEST(Receipt Number: XXXXXXXXXX)

08/26/2013

USCIS

CALIFORNIA SERVICES CENTER

ATTN：HUNT/WS17099

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing in regard to the expedite request for my EAD application. I

requested the expedite service on *** of 2012. However, I received an email

telling me that I will need to wait for another 30 days for a decision.

I have been offered a great job position at The O*****y and the starting date is *** of 2012-less than 10 business days. As a foreign student, one of

the requirements for receiving this offer is that I should have employment

authorization approved. As I need my salary to pay for my living expenses by

p>

myself, the delayed approval will lead to severe financial loss. More

Importantly, if I do not start on time, I may lose this great job

opportunity!

Secondly, it has been more than 55 days since USCIS filed my case on 10/9/

2012. Based on the first-come-first serve principle, my case is expected to

be approved along with the cases of the same application date. Given that

other cases filed the later have been approved (Listed below) and my case is

still pending, I believe my situation satisfies the criteria for expedite

processing.

Case 1: LIN13***** Receive date:

**, 2012. Card Delivery: **, 2012

Case 2: LIN13***** Receive date: **, 2012 Card Delivery: **, 2012

I also included a support letter from my future employer to support my

expedite request!

Based on the two reasons, please grant me expedite processing. Thank you so

much!

Have a great evening!

Regards

your name

Below is my application information that you may need:

Applicant:

Date of Birth:

Employer:

Starting date:

Receipt number:

p>

Case type: I-765 Application for Employment Authorization

Receive Date: Oct 9, 2012

Notice date: Oct 11, 2012

Mailing address:

Email:

Cell

What to do with RFE

Generally after telling you the RFE, USCIS will notify you by regular mail. What materials are missing? At this time, you usually have to wait several days or even weeks. I waited 16 days before receiving this notice by regular mail. But then I discovered that you can call the second-level customer service and ask them to read the content of the letter to you, so that you can save a long time to know what materials you are missing.

Call USCIS

USCIS has first-level customer service and second-level customer service. Generally, you have to call the first-level customer service to transfer you to the second-level customer service. Level 1 customer service is basically like a robot and will only read you the information you can find. So if you want to argue about something or inquire about something that cannot be found online, you need to transfer it to the secondary customer service. First-level customer service: 1-800-375-5283. Just press 1 until you enter the receipt number, and then press 3 to report problem. Or when you are asked to enter the receipt number, you choose to forget the receipt number, so that you can access faster. It usually takes one to two hours to be transferred to the second-level customer service, and the customer service will call you back. Also, to make things more serious, first-level customer service may not necessarily transfer you for ordinary matters. There are good and bad first-level customer service. If they don't help you once, you can call them a second time. Usually it's not the same person.

Photo Issues

Most RFEs are due to photos. During the whole process, I went to five or six photo studios including Costco, CVS, and Walgreens to take photos. My personal experience is to go directly to the digital photograph specialists posted on the wall at Walgreens. These people are generally experienced and the photos they take will not be too bright or too dark. And when they are away, many salespeople will come over to help you take pictures, and they claim to have been trained by these specialists.

But when I saw the way their hands were shaking when holding the camera, I felt dissatisfied, so I decided to switch to another company. A manager from another family came over and finished the photo. He used the big Photoshop eraser to try to whiten the background. As a result, he erased a white circle on the photo. I really don’t know what these people were thinking. They asked after it was developed. If you don't want to, just reshoot it, or just be decisive and find a specialist. In addition, it is best to put the photos in small transparent zip bags. This is what USCIS required when I resubmitted the materials. Of course, it is not wrong to do this at the beginning, because the photos will be stained, damaged, and contaminated by USCIS. I will definitely not pay for it for you.

Signature issue

Don’t forget to sign the latest I20. Then the signatures on all forms and I20s must not exceed the horizontal line. If there is a frame, you must sign it within the frame. Any part of the signature that exceeds that box is certainly not allowed, and it is best to use black ink. These are additional requirements when submitting supplementary materials, and USCIS will not remind you at the beginning.

USCIS generally will not pay for their mistakes

USCIS may lose your materials, get them wet, may put your case aside and forget about it, or even Your EAD may have been lost in the mail, but they are too high-sounding to pay for their mistakes. They will send you an RFE and ask you to reapply, and nothing will happen to them. Therefore, you must apply in advance and actively argue if the situation arises. You can ask the school’s ISSO advisor to help you contact them. They have their own specific channels for contacting USCIS.

About returning to the country

Generally, you must not return to the country before you get the OPT receipt. This is clearly stated by USCIS. But my strong suggestion is to get the EAD card before returning to the country. This is safer. It should be noted that when you return to the United States, your visa is still valid and your I-20 is still valid. You can enter the United States with your EAD card identity. When I entered the United States, I only showed my EAD card. The prosecutor looked at the validity period of my card in detail and did not ask for any other documents. I did not want to mention the offer letter, tax forms and other things that many people said, so there is no problem in using the EAD card to return to the United States, as long as the visa is valid. If your visa has expired and you need to return to your country to apply for a visa with a new I-20 and EAD card, you need to know the success rate of using the EAD card to apply for a visa after graduation and whether you can ensure that the visa application is approved after you return to China. After all, whether you can return to the United States is a big deal.

About changing the mailing address

Many people apply for EAD cards in time for graduation. After all, many people will move during graduation. Therefore, I suggest that the mailing address of the EAD card must be a long-term valid address. After you finish writing, at least make sure that your address will not change until the receipt is mailed to you. If you are not sure, the safest way is to mail it to your ISSO who will mail it to your friend's house. If you want to change the address after receiving the receipt, change it immediately. Don't wait until card production, as it will be too late. Moreover, Americans are very inefficient in doing things, so it is not impossible that it took a month to actually change the address. After the change is completed, try to call and ask how long it will take to input it into their system, until the phone call confirms that the mailing address has been changed.