Does anyone know,

if one is in graduate school with fulltime CPT, working 40 hrs a week for a year.

I know he will not get OPT after graduation.
Any way around it?

I heard you could use some part of OPT before graduation but I'm not sure if this is true.

As long as you work less than 12 months on full time CPT you should receive your OPT approval. The key here is "less than 12 months". I know a few people who worked for almost a year(on CPT), about 50 weeks and were able to receive approval for OPT upon graduation.

Hope this helps. Your international student office should be able to provide you more information.

Work on CPT for 11 months and 15 days.
Apply for OPT well ahead of time, at least 60 days prior to this expiration period.
Apply I-765 with $180 fee to appropriate service center.
At current rate, approval should come in 45-60 days.
Applying during the last semester of your studies and you should be fine.

WTH... does this apply to undergraduates too? If so I am in a big freakin hole..... what If you haven't worked full time all year long?

Thanks to all that replied.

So no one has yet heard of using part of OPT before graduation, right?

When someone told me you could use OPT before graduation I was skeptical. I've asked this question to my advisor so will keep you all posted if I hear anything.

o_o :
If you are on part time CPT then I think you qualify for OPT even if you've worked a year. But, I'm not 100% on this.

Yes you can qualify for OPT before graduation, but you probably don't want to go that route because that will subtract time off your OPT after graduation. The thing is, for each degree level (Bachelor's, Master's , etc) you get 1 year (each) OPT. If you use 6 months of your OPT during your Masters program, you will only get 1yr - 6 mths = 6mths of OPT upon graduation. If you use 1 month of OPT before graduation, you will have 1 yr -1 mth = 11 months of OPT upon graduation.

silly girl
i like you already... let's keep it in cyberspace.. but be warned.. i likes you k

Yes, it is advisable to take OPT after graduation only but I happen to be one of those whose fate is dependent on H1-B result.
So, I was thinking of alternatives.

I don't really care how much OPT is used up as long as it keeps me legal until next quota results are out.

Thanks. This gives me some hope now.