Maintaining F-1 Status on STEM OPT

STEM OPT Extension Employment Requirements

Employment Permitted under STEM OPT

• Must be a paid position
• Each position must be for 20 hours per week or more
• Each employer must be registered with E-Verify
• Must be a position related to the STEM program major listed under “Program of Study” on the I-20. If you applied for STEM OPT based on a previously earned degree, the employment on STEM OPT must be related to the previous degree’s major field of study.
• You must be paid a salary, and be supervised, directly by your employer. You cannot be paid by a third party or staffing agency, or work at a location other than your employer’s place of business. For more information, please see “The Employer’s Training Obligation: Staffing and Temporary Agencies” on the USCIS Website.
• In an academic environment, you cannot be paid through an external fellowship. For example, you cannot use STEM OPT for a research position where you are not paid directly by the host institution.
• You must not begin work for any new employer without first submitting to ISSS a completed, signed I-983 Training Plan for that employer/position.
• Permitted to accumulate a maximum of 150 days of unemployment over the combined periods of OPT and STEM OPT (36 months total).
• Does not allow for self-employment
• Cannot volunteer or work in an unpaid position
• There is no limit on the maximum number of hours you may work per week.  You may work for multiple employers as long as each employer is registered with E-Verify, each position is 20 hours per week or more and directly related to the STEM major, and an I-983 is submitted for each employer/position with ISSS.

Reporting Requirements

The following information is meant solely to provide students on STEM OPT with general information regarding reporting requirements, deadlines, and how to notify ISSS.  Note that reporting responsibilities are subject to change.

You must report as and when instructed below. This information should be submitted via the STEM OPT Verification Form found on the Forms page.

As part of the required reporting, you must confirm the following information with ISSS:

• Legal name;
• Residential or mailing address;
• Employer name and address; and
• Status of current employment.

In addition to the 6-month reporting requirement, you must report any change in the above-listed information, including any loss of employment, within 10 days of the change. Failure to report such changes could be considered a violation of your F-1 status and may result in the termination of your STEM OPT benefit and F-1 status.

Address Changes

If you change your physical address, you must report this change to ISSS within 10 days throughout your STEM OPT period. To notify ISSS of these changes, please submit the Address Update Form found on the Forms section of the website. 

Employment Reporting

F-1 Students on the STEM OPT Extension benefit get email reminders from SEVIS about their reporting requirements starting 30 calendar days prior to each of the 6-month reporting periods.  These emails inform the student to contact their Principle Designated School Official (PDSO) or Designated School Officials (DSOs) to have the records validated in SEVIS.  ONLY DSOs can validate your STEM OPT in SEVIS.  You must follow the procedures outlined below to have your SEVIS record validated.

ISSS will not validate the SEVIS record based on email requests from students.  Students must submit reports as instructed below for ISSS to validate SEVIS records.

ISSS legally has 21 days from the date reports are submitted to ISSS to validate the records in SEVIS.  Students will continue to receive the reminder emails until the records are validated in SEVIS.  If you follow the below instructions to report for each period, you will receive an automatic email confirmation generated by your submission.  Please do not email ISSS multiple times regarding your submission as that delays the ISSS validation process.

STEM OPT Reporting Requirement Instructions

Your 6-month, 12-month, 18-month and 24-month reporting periods are based on the dates listed on your STEM OPT EAC document. We recommend that you put reminders in your calendar to report on those dates as ISSS does not send reminders.

All forms and resources can be found on the Forms portion of our website.

• 6-months: 
  • Submit the ISSS STEM OPT Validation form
• 12-months/1-year midterm:
  • Submit the ISSS STEM OPT Validation form with inclusion of I-983 page 5 12-month self-evaluation (see below regarding Annual Self-Evaluations)
• 18-months:
  • Submit the ISSS STEM OPT Validation form
• 24-months/2-year final:
  • Submit the ISSS STEM OPT Validation form with inclusion of I-983 page 5 final self-evaluation (see below regarding Annual Self-Evaluations)

You must always report on those dates, even if there is no change or even if you changed just a couple of weeks before.

Annual Self-Evaluations

Annual self-evaluations are about the progress of the training experience.  The I-983 Training Plan form  page 5 (last page) contains the Self-Evaluation section.  It should be filled out by you and your employer.  You and your employer(s) must sign the self-evaluation section before you submit it to ISSS.  For more information about the annual self-evaluation, please visit the Study in the States webpage: Students and the Form I-983.

Employment Changes

All changes in employment including salary, supervisor, location, title, etc. you must report to ISSS. ISSS must update your SEVIS record. You will not be able to do that via the SEVIS portal. Please follow the below instructions:

To end a position (even if with the same company):

1. Submit an End of Employment form.  Please note, you will need to submit a final self-evaluation (page 5 of the I-983 form) with this End of Employment form.
2. Ask your employer to send an email to isss@middlebury.edu informing ISSS that you have ended or will end employment with them as pursuant to the Employer Reporting requirements.
   • They should put “STEM OPT Extension Employer Report” in the subject line and provide us your name and the day you end or will end your employment.
   • This should be done within 5 days of your employment ending

Beginning a new position (even if with the same company):

1. Submit a New Employment Update form.  Please note, you will be required to submit a new I-983 form with the New Employment Update form.
2. Provide to your employer the Employer Reporting Requirement URL.

To report material changes in your current employment:

• Complete a Form I-983 with the changes and submit via the Document Submission Form. 
• See below for an explanation of what are considered material changes to employment.  

Material Changes to an Existing Form I-983 Training Plan

You must report to ISSS any material changes to, or material deviations from, the formal training plan.   This requires the submission to ISSS of an updated Form I-983 via the Document Submission Form found of the Forms page.

Material changes or deviations from the original Form I-983 may include, but are not limited to:

• Any change of the employer’s Employer Identification Number (EIN).
• Any reduction in student compensation that is not tied to a reduction in hours worked.
• Any significant decrease in hours per week that a student engages in a STEM training opportunity.
• Changes to the employer’s commitments or student’s learning objectives as documented on the Form I-983.

So long as you and your employer meet the regulatory requirements and the modified Form I-983 meets the specified requirements, your employment authorization will not cease based on a change to the plan.

For further reference, below is the specific Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) governing this:

8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(C)(9)(ii)  If any material change to or deviation from the training plan described in the Form I- 983 or successor form occurs, the student and employer must sign a modified Form I-983 or successor form reflecting the material change(s) or deviation(s). Material changes and deviations relating to training may include, but are not limited to, any change of Employer Identification Number resulting from a corporate restructuring, any reduction in compensation from the amount previously submitted on the Form I-983 or successor form that is not tied to a reduction in hours worked, any significant decrease in hours per week that a student engages in a STEM training opportunity, and any decrease in hours worked below the minimum hours for the 24-month extension as described in paragraph (f)(10)(ii)(C)(8) of this section. Material changes and deviations also include any change or deviation that renders an employer attestation inaccurate, or renders inaccurate the information in the Form I-983 or successor form on the nature, purpose, oversight, or assessment of the student’s practical training opportunity. The student and employer must ensure that the modified Form I-983 or successor form is submitted to the student’s DSO at the earliest available opportunity.

Employer Noncompliance

If you believe that your STEM OPT employer is not complying with the terms and conditions of the 24-month STEM OPT extension regulations, the Form I-983 instructions, and the completed Form I-983 on file with ISSS, you may:

• Contact the Student and Exchange Visitor Program at the U.S.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by following the instructions found on ICE.gov.
• Report violations through the Homeland Security Investigations tip submission form.

There are a number of enforcement and oversight mechanisms to help ensure compliance, including but not limited to reporting requirements, employer site visits, periodic evaluation of a student’s training, and required notification of any material changes to or deviations from the Training Plan.

Please note that if you believe that your employer is not complying with the 24-month STEM OPT extension regulations and Form I-983 instructions, you should leave that practical training opportunity and report your unemployment to ISSS.  A period of student unemployment, caused by an employer’s failure to comply with program requirements, on its own will not affect the STEM OPT student’s status so long as the student reports changes in employment status and adheres to the overall unemployment limits.

updated 06/25/2024