Am I legal to stay at U.S after the summer CPT?

[showwayer]

Hi all,

I am currently working at a company in California with my summer CPT (due to some reason, I don't have OPT). And my company is filing the H1B working visa for me in this summer and it will take effects in Oct 1st. But my summer CPT will be expired after this summer (August 24th). Do I have to go back home country and come back in U.S around Oct 1st? Is it legal to stay at U.S. without working for my company during August 24th to Oct 1st? It's about 1 month and 1 week or so.

Thanks!

[Joe.F]

The cap-gap rules apply to OPT ONLY.

Since you apparently haven't graduated (if you had graduated, you wouldn't even be able to get CPT), you seem to be dropping out of your program. As far as I remember, there is no grace period for the F1 for somebody who drops out of college.