OPT Reporting

All students on Optional Practical Training (OPT) are required to report to their OVIS advisors within 10 days any change to:

• Legal Name
   
• Residential or mailing address
   
• Employer and employer address, and/or any interruption or loss of employment

Reporting is done through iDartmouth. Address and employer updates can be made using the Address and Employer Update Form in iDartmouth.

Please also notify OVIS of a change of status to another immigration status, or if you need a transfer to another F-1 program.

Remember that your Form I-20 travel signature is only valid for six months when you are on OPT.  If you plan to travel internationally and you need a new travel signature, please submit your request in iDartmouth.

Any jobs done while on OPT must relate directly to your major (not concentration, minor, or major modification bu underlying major). Whenever you report employment to OVIS, you will need to write a relevance statement about how your job relates to your major. The government has given some examples of appropriate relevance statements. You can find more examples here (click "publish" then scroll to pages 4-5).

Example 1:
PhD in Computer Science: I am employed as a Computer and Information Research Scientist at ABC Research Institute. I work as part of a team of scientists and engineers that designs experiments to test the operation of various software systems. My work builds on research in complex algorithms and machine learning, which I studied as part of my dissertation. 

Example 2:
Bachelor's degree in Business: I work full time as a Loan Officer at a mortgage company, Happy Homes, where I meet with clients and evaluate, authorize and recommend approval of loan applications. On a daily basis, I use the knowledge I gained in my credit analysis, sales and marketing classes that I took as part of my major program of study. 

In 2018 SEVP introduced the SEVP Student Portal.  It is an optional tool that F-1 students can use to view your OPT information in SEVIS and update it.  Because OVIS requires that you report changes to our office, and we in turn report that information to SEVIS on your behalf, we require that you continue use the OVIS iDartmouth reporting tool. This will help prevent discrepancies in data between your OVIS record and your SEVIS record, and avoids the need for you to do double reporting.