I'm a Canadian Student Attending School in the USA..

Hello all.
I am a canadian student currently attending a graduate school in san francisco.
I am graduating the end of this year and I will have to apply for my Optional Pratical Training(OPT) soon. I guess most of us know and heard about the new OPT rule which indicates we only get 90days of OPT. So, if I don't find a job in 90days,
I will be forced to leave the country. Here is my question to you all.

(Q) If I don't find a job in the USA during my 90days of OPT period, I will have to go back to Canada. Can I still come back to the USA as a tourist? If I can't come back to San Francisco right away, how long do I have to wait until I can come back as a tourist?


Wow.90days to look for a job.with 10days of grace period!? :( I don't think that's enough time.Thank you all for reading this post and I appreciate any information you are about to share with me.

(Q) If I don't find a job in the USA during my 90days of OPT period, I will have to go back to Canada. Can I still come back to the USA as a tourist? If I can't come back to San Francisco right away, how long do I have to wait until I can come back as a tourist?


Wow.90days to look for a job.with 10days of grace period!? I don't think that's enough time.Thank you all for reading this post and I appreciate any information you are about to share with me.

Well you actually have six months to look for a job (the three months before you graduate plus three months after). Depending on your field, I would think that it would be enough. The job has to be in your field but it does NOT have to be the final, long term, job offer that will lead to a green card. You can accept short term contract work in your field of study with an OPT EAD while you continue to look for longer term work.

As to whether they allow you back in as a tourist, it all depends on whether they believe that you have re-established residence in Canada. Theoretically this shouldn't be an issue because as a foreign student you were never supposed to abandon Canadian residence in the first place--but in practice, of course, it could be trickier.

I don't know your field, but I've always been able to find work in much shorter time frames, in good and bad economic times. The state of the economy does tend to have an effect on how picky I can be in what job I accept.

I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as your EAD is valid, USCIS have no clue whether you've gotten a job or not.

You can come back as a tourist IF you haven't already been in the US for six months in this calendar year, if you have, you have to wait until next year to re-enter.

I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as your EAD is valid, USCIS have no clue whether you've gotten a job or not.

Students on post-completion practical training are limited to 90 days of unemployment as of April 8, 2008:

Extension of Optional Training Program for Qualified Students

It seems they responded to the problems in getting H-1B's these days by allowing extensions to EAD's in certain cases, but with the caveat that one goes out of status if one is unemployed for >90 days.

Thank you all for sharing information with me

Students on post-completion practical training are limited to 90 days of unemployment as of April 8, 2008

But reading through that they only seem to be able to establish it with people who get the 17-month extension as their employers have to use E-verify and a new EAD has to be obtained. If you do a degree with a regular 12-month EAD and you intend to leave at the end, can't see a way they can establish you were unemployed.

Not that breaking the law is a recommended course of action.

Hi, I have a similar question.

I have a Canadian passport but no residency in Canada. I've completed my undergraduate degree at a US college in June and applied for OPT in July under my F-1 student visa, my EAD card doesn't expire until next year. I have a I-94 card in my passport. Since then, I have not been able to find a job. According to what I have been told, there is a 90 day unemployment dateline and it is coming up soon.

I know I have to leave the States before the deadline according to my advisers. However, I want continue my job search and attend a series of job fairs at my University that are scheduled later this month. To complicate matters, I really have no accommodation in Canada and most of my belongings are in the States.

My question is this: Would I get into trouble returning to the States this quickly?

If your F1 is rendered invalid because of this period of unemployment, then, yes, you will have trouble entering US, since you would be entering as a tourist, and cannot do so without an established home outside US.

When you come back, CBP will ask you if you are working. If you aren't, they will ask you how long have you not been working. Your honest answer will get you denied entry on F1 (they will likely strip you of F1). You then are subject to the same entry rules as any other Cdn tourist (which include not being allowed into US on a job search, and having a permanent foreign home.)

Remember, once you have been unemployed for a TOTL of 90 days since OPT started, your OPT is no longer valid.