Refresher on Hiring International Students

With the school year coming to a close, international students are looking for internship, summer and post-completion positions. We thought now would be a good time to provide a brief refresher on the conditions under which international students may work.

When a student is studying pursuant to an F-1 visa they are allowed employment under limited conditions. Two of these options are curricular practical training and optional practical training.

This type of employment is available to a student as long as it is related to the student’s course of study, such as an internship/externship for academic credit, coordinated between the school and the employer, or is mandated by the school in order to fulfill the degree requirements. In order to be eligible for curricular practical training, the student must have completed nine months of full-time study.

The employment opportunity must qualify for academic credit and be listed in the course description book as employment with a purpose of promoting hands-on experience where a faculty member monitors the progress of the student. Curricular practical training can also be granted for so called Co-op positions if such a program is available. While there is no limit to the time a student may be employed in curricular practical training, if the student remains in full-time curricular practical training for more than twelve months he or she will be ineligible for optional practical training.

This type of employment of a student is more common than curricular practical training. As with curricular practical training, optional practical training must relate to the course of study. Unlike curricular practical training, the school does not have to approve of or monitor the student’s progress while employed. To be eligible to apply for optional practical training, the student must have pursued a full-time course of study for nine consecutive months. Optional practical training is limited to one year of full-time employment, and can be broken down into shorter periods of full-time or part-time employment. Each period, however, requires a new application for employment authorization with the INS.

Optional practical training may only be pursued at the following times during a course of study: 1) during the school year while classes are in session (part-time only), 2) during the times when school is not in session (i.e. summer vacations or other regularly scheduled vacations), 3) after all course requirements are completed for a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree (doctoral students may begin full-time optional practical training when all course requirements are completed for their degree, while engaged in dissertation).

An important item to remember with optional practical training is that if the INS grants work authorization for optional practical training and the student decides not to work or cannot find employment, they have lost their opportunity to pursue optional practical training for that period of time they applied for. It is not possible to recapture unused time.

Please contact us if you would like to employ an international student and require assistance.

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