Apply for OPT & travel ?

[Ravi100]

Am a student on F1 with my I-20 expiring in Dec-2006. I started in Sep 2004.

I am planning on applying for OPT sometime in Oct so that I get it by Dec 2006.

My questio is: Can I travel to my home country (India) between Oct and Dec and safely return to US w/o any immigration problems?

Is it okie for someone to travel to the home country after applying for OPT?
Please help

thanks,

[studentstudent]

No

Hi.No I dont think u should travel after applying.I think ur I-20 will show that uve applied for OPT.Either go after getting the OPT card(which is also risky) or a better option would be to come back from India by Oct end and then apply for OPT.I know a friend who defended his thesis ,then went to India, and then he applied for graduation next semester.He took only 1 credit as u can do that for ur last semester.meanwhile he searched for a job and applied for OPT.I think that is a good way to go around this issue.

[JVGGN]

If you apply for the OPT after traveling I don't think there is a problem. Once you have your OPT your student Visa is not valid anymore. You can than not travel untill you have a job, once you have a job you can only travel with written consent of your boss, you need proof that you're working somewhere.