Travel during CPT/OPT/STEM

Hello international students and alumni,

The ISSO hopes you are doing well. As we approach the winter break and holidays, our office has been receiving many questions about options for CPT and OPT authorizations during travel. We hope this email will clarify what you need to know.

While it is acceptable to conduct CPT and OPT/STEM employment remotely while you are physically within the United States, existing Practical Training regulations and guidance generally assume that work during F-1 employment authorization periods should not be conducted remotely while you are outside of the country. Some regulatory reasons for this distinction include:

• In general, immigration rules and benefits only apply within the country where you are currently residing. CPT and OPT are U.S. work authorizations, and do not technically apply while you are physically outside the U.S.
• You are required by law to report the CPT or OPT employment Work Site address where you are physically working (including remote work locations), and only U.S. work site addresses are valid to report in SEVIS. You cannot fulfill your legal practical training reporting requirements by working remotely at a non-U.S. work site/ location. STEM OPT has even stricter work site compliance requirements.
• During the COVID pandemic, there was a temporary allowance for CPT and OPT remote work to be conducted from abroad. However, once that guidance ended in 2023, so did the temporary allowance.
• Regulation 8 CFR 214.2(f)(13)(ii) shows the assumption that employment during OPT should be paused while abroad: “An F-1 student who has an unexpired EAD issued for post-completion practical training and who is otherwise admissible may return to the United States to resume employment after a period of temporary absence.” (this also applies to the STEM extension)
• USCIS released the following guidance update in 2024 which reinforces the previous point that time abroad may not be considered as employed time during OPT: “Time spent outside of the United States does not extend the period of authorized Optional Practical Training (OPT). Time spent overseas counts towards the F-1 student’s aggregate maximum allowed period of unemployment.”

Due to these reasons, it would be safest for your status to instead take an approved leave while you are travelling abroad rather than potentially violate the CPT or OPT regulations by working remotely outside of the U.S.

If the travel abroad is a short-term official business trip for the job duties of an OPT/STEM employment, that may be acceptable, but you should receive and keep documentation from your employer regarding the nature of the travel to present to immigration authorities in the future as needed. Otherwise, we strongly suggest that you do not attempt to work remotely from abroad, even if your individual employer states that they would permit it.

In regards to time abroad during OPT being counted as unemployment, at this time we can only advise that you are cautious with the amount of time you are outside of the U.S. during an OPT/STEM period. While the SEVIS system will not automatically calculate time abroad or approved leave as unemployed time, it appears per the new guidance that USCIS could choose to consider time abroad during OPT as unemployed time in future immigration processes under their purview. We believe the primary place that this could come up would be directly with USCIS if you applied for other statuses or benefits with them in the future. With this in mind, it may be safest to keep your travel time + unemployed time under your allowed unemployment total during OPT just in case USCIS does choose to scrutinize your immigration history in a future application.

We hope this answered any questions you had about considerations for travel during an approved Practical Training period. If you have additional questions, please reach out to us through our ISSO advising services: https://isso.utdallas.edu/advising/

Warm regards,

ISSO Advising Team

International Students and Scholars Office