Out of Status DS 160 filling

[tiwari]

Hello everyone,

I have graduated in Dec 2015 and my OPT started on Dec 31st 2015. There is this unemployment grace period of 90 days(till April 1, 2016) to get a job before you run out of status. To avoid this I have joined a consultancy from Feb 1 to Mar 31 as my employer A and updated my Sevis. I got my full time job at employer B starting April 11 2016 which is beyond 90 days of grace period(101 days) . I got my H1B approved last year(2017) and planning to go to India soon. While filling out the DS 160 do you guys recommend skipping my previous employer A and mention only employer B since I don't have valid pay stubs or experience letter because of in house project. Does visa officer notice i did not include my previous employer looking at my sevis? Please advice on this.

Thanks.
Tiwari

[newacct]

Hello everyone,

I have graduated in Dec 2015 and my OPT started on Dec 31st 2015. There is this unemployment grace period of 90 days(till April 1, 2016) to get a job before you run out of status. To avoid this I have joined a consultancy from Feb 1 to Mar 31 as my employer A and updated my Sevis. I got my full time job at employer B starting April 11 2016 which is beyond 90 days of grace period(101 days) . I got my H1B approved last year(2017) and planning to go to India soon. While filling out the DS 160 do you guys recommend skipping my previous employer A and mention only employer B since I don't have valid pay stubs or experience letter because of in house project. Does visa officer notice i did not include my previous employer looking at my sevis? Please advice on this.

Thanks.
Tiwari

You can volunteer on OPT. That counts as work. You don't need to have gotten any pay stubs. You could even be self-employed if you want on OPT.

It is important for you to list this first job because otherwise you would have violated the rules of OPT and fallen out of status in April 1 if you had been unemployed for 90 days, and then you would have been subsequently out of status and working illegally.