H4 to F1 conversion to be eligible for OPT

[ankur.patel]

Hi,

 

My wife is on H4, she just started her first semester on Aug 17th, 2015...She is planning to complete her master in 3 semester (Fall 2015, Spring 2016 and Fall 2016). I know there are two ways of changing to f1 status and she has to maintain 2 semester as full time student (9 credit each)...

1. Applying COS while staying in USA

2. Get a F1 stamp from home country

 

So lets assume if she applies for this Sep,2015 and get the approval by Nov-Dec 2015. So which makes her eligible for OPT as she has to two semester left and enough number of credit hrs.

So my doubt is if she get her COS approval this semester (Fall 2015), but if she decides to travel to India in (Summer 2016) which makes her to take F1 stamp to travel back to USA. So after coming back does she need to complete two more semester( Fall 2016 and Spring 2017) to be eligible for OPT ? 

                                                   Or

 

No, She do not need to take additional semester. Because after COS(H4->F1) approval she is doing two full semester and it does not matter whether she travels in between and has to get stamped. She will be eligible for OPT.

 

 

Thank you