OPT for H4 to F1 Conversion

[rgandhi22]

Hi All,

My wife has been a full time student on H-4 visa for the first three semesters in her Bachelors program. We applied for a change of status to F-1 visa on April 22nd 2015.

 

She started school on 24th August but her F-1 visa has still not been approved.Her case status shows as Optimized (as of 18th Aug 2015). She plans to graduate in May and apply for a post graduation OPT. 

 

My question is that since her F-1 is not approved yet (and assuming her F-1 is approved by Oct 1st week), will this be an issue in applying for her OPT?

 

We did read that for pre-completion OPT, the student needs to be on F1 status for one full academic year but we did not see any specific requirements for Post completion OPT. Her university DSO said that she needs to be on F1 for one full academic year for OPT application (The DSO did not mention Post or Pre). Is this true considering that she has been a full time student on H4 visa for her first 3 semesters?

 

Please advise.

 

Thank you.
RPG 

[jairichi]

If she does not move to F1 status for the required number of semesters then she is not eligible for OPT. Looks like your spouse is not eligible for OPT as mentioned by DSO.