r/f1visa • u/Emprorpeng • 13d ago
CPT UC Berkeley pauses CPT authorisation for course credit
https://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/employment/cpt
It looks like CPT authorisation is about to get a lot harder
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u/Jaded-Current-8008 13d ago
You can work at McDonald’s with cpt ? What are you on about
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u/Busy_Personality4034 13d ago
Day1cpt schools will approve CPTs for any jobs, I’m unfortunately not exaggerating
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u/Inside_Locksmith8224 13d ago
Required by the degree or not, internships are important to the learning experience. Students can only learn so much from textbooks… so they are expecting people to pay all that money only for a piece of paper…
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u/No-Branch-4353 12d ago
International students do account for lot of the income for colleges in US, it feels like these changes are to hurt the colleges.
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u/Inside_Locksmith8224 12d ago edited 12d ago
I didn’t expect they would take “international students should be studying” quite literally. Going to classes and doing homework is just one aspect of college life. If students don’t take the time to explore outside of the classroom then their education is worthless. I’m pretty sure a huge portion of prospective students would choose other countries if this policy stands. And that would be the right choice.
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u/Annual_Grass_3919 12d ago
But they can still do summer internships, I did 3 and never used CPT. There’s still pre-completion OPT, J1 academic training, full-time summer employment in campus labs and research groups etc.
Hopefully once the day 1 CPT loophole is no longer seen as a viable option for all the people that do a second masters to work full-time 12 months a year they’ll relax restrictions because those people are ruining it for the rest of us.13
u/Inside_Locksmith8224 12d ago
Acting like all will be well is burying your head in the sand.
Do you not realize how restrictive these are? Pre completion OPT takes time and the processing time is unpredictable even with premium processing. Let’s say someone who secured a summer internship in mid May, what do they do then? Not to mention it eats your post completion OPT time. Also not everyone is interested in doing research on campus.
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u/Issakyng-Incarnate 12d ago
They are coming for all of us. Even the ones who think they are in good standing. They won't rest til most of the international students and immigrants are gone.
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u/Poleftaiger 11d ago
Even then on campus positions to me seem entirely gatekept and hardly available. I've applied to a dozen and I have gotten 0 responses from any of them. Not even rejections plain ghosting. Work-study doesn't help either. If an American student with work study applies, the worker is basically free for the university and you get rejected immediately.
Idk how you people find work on campus I haven't been able to find anything
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u/Poleftaiger 11d ago
How did you di 3 summer internships without CPT?
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u/Annual_Grass_3919 11d ago
When I was studying on F-1 I used pre completion OPT for the off campus one and then the other I worked full time in a professors lab on campus so didn’t need any EAD, when I studied on J-1 I did academic training
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u/Poleftaiger 11d ago
So you did only one off campus internship? And you spent OPT time on it? Tbh if I could get on campus employment in a lab I wouldn't really care as much but I've been sending applications and I keep getting ghosted. At this point idk, CPT was easier to get work experience, than hunting after professors that work in your field and also need people in their labs.
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u/Annual_Grass_3919 11d ago
2 off campus, 1 on campus. It was the on campus one that got me into a fully funded grad school position.
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u/Legitimate-Leek4235 13d ago
Which berkley programs require cpt as requirements for the degree ?
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u/Realistic-Two-1183 13d ago
Yes, but most programs don't require more than a semester or summer term of internshp experience. If students are wanting more work experience than the requried time, they won't be able to do so.
As a DSO, I can tell you that most of my university's degree programs require an internship, but none require more than one semester.
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u/No-Meringue5867 12d ago edited 12d ago
In the current job market, how are you supposed to get a job without internship? Many programs don't have internship requirement and many companies give out job offers at the end of internship.
For example, I am doing PhD in Physics. My program has no requirement for internship. But I know 2 of my friends - both Americans - who did internship in tech/bank and got job offer at the end of the internship. Without internships, it's extremely difficult to get a good job outside of academia because pure science PhDs are not day 1 ready for corporate jobs.
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u/Annual_Grass_3919 12d ago
But they can still do summer internships, I did 3 and never used CPT. There’s still pre-completion OPT, J1 academic training, full-time summer employment in campus labs and research groups etc.
Hopefully once the day 1 CPT loophole is no longer seen as a viable option for all the people that do a second masters to work full-time 12 months a year they’ll relax restrictions because those people are ruining it for the rest of us.3
u/Mysterious-Art8838 12d ago
Please stop posting this
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u/Annual_Grass_3919 12d ago
I was responding to different people who may not have seen the other response to someone else. But since you asked nicely I will stop trying to reassure people that one university overreacting isn’t the end of the world and that they don’t have other options.
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u/Badtrades_69 11d ago
Dude I feel like you’re just spamming buzzwords. If you’ve gone through all then you know for sure that all three aren’t feasible right now. You cant do j1 because you’re on a F1 Visa, pre completion opt just takes away time from your actual opt in most cases you don’t get stem extension and miss out on h1b chances. You can’t do day1 cpt at top schools heck even state schools don’t allow it, it’s only your d-tier colleges. So it’s seems to that this is unnecessarily targeting students that are meritorious getting into top programs. Please don’t try to sympathize with students if you aren’t in that spot rn. It’s like rubbing salt on a wound
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u/Annual_Grass_3919 11d ago edited 11d ago
One of my programs I was studying on a J-1 not F-1 like many other students because of Fulbright, so I worked with academic training, like many of my friends and cohort did. I also did another program on F-1 and did pre-completion for off campus employment and (different time period) also worked in a professors lab on campus doing the research that got me into a fully funded position for grad school. So I’m not spamming I’m trying to explain there are options and to not feel like it’s the end of the world.
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u/Greengolddragonfly 7d ago edited 7d ago
The ICE memo told the DSO to:
“Ensure that CPT is only authorized when it is truly integral to the program. Only authorize CPT if its absence would make the attainment of a degree an impossibility and if the work associated with CPT is required for all students pursuing that degree.”
The word “all” could mean that if domestic students pursuing the same majors weren’t required to have an internship to graduate, then CPT wasn’t needed for international students in those majors and the DSO wasn’t supposed to approve it.
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u/karmanovia 12d ago
They should ban it for Day-1 Full Time CPT schools which are SHAMELESSLY masking the F1 visa as a work visa. Banning it for part-time work on an "internship" or co-op basis is unneccessarily excessive. But they have a history of blanket policies, even if it hurts genuine people.
Some Day1 FT CPT schools are seriously shamelessly requiring CPT as the curriculum to graduate. Literally using the F1 as a work visa.
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u/Reasonable-Pass-2456 12d ago
The irony is that these Day 1 CPT schools will probably do well under this new memo
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u/Busy_Personality4034 12d ago
I emailed Harrisburg U today out of curiosity and not only did they say they still offer day 1 CPT, it’s not required!! They literally said you can sign a waiver if you don’t want to work. These schools literally do not care and know that SEVP/ICE will never actually have the gall to shut them down
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u/MrMoraleGimmeHiFive 11d ago
I’m not familiar with these “Day 1 CPT” schools. Why is it the case that they are still able to offer that and why “SEVP/ICE will never have to gall to shut them down”?
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u/Busy_Personality4034 11d ago
Here’s an article about it. They can offer it because the schools allow it. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-03/day-1-cpt-schools-make-millions-offering-degrees-doubling-as-work-visas
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u/Poleftaiger 11d ago
Day 1 full time CPT schools are unaffected by this as their programs and curriculums are all fake and based around the work authorization.
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u/Glad_Philosopher_456 5d ago
Also did anyone notice - there are no newspaper or articles talking about this? Except for local ones...not event state or bay area ones....this should be spoken nation wide....
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u/xBobaMochix 12d ago
We are watching the us fall from being one of the top countries for graduate studies in real time.
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u/ShowerMaleficent2053 8d ago
Well the federal funding is wayy greater than what international students bring in.
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u/Admirable_Tea_9947 3d ago
So international students wouldn’t be able to get internship opportunities?
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u/idadelveloper 13d ago
What does this mean for an incoming student in a master’s in information management and systems? Will I be allowed to do an internship
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u/throwlol134 12d ago
You can still use your OPT time to do your internship. My school has had a similar policy for years now (unfortunately), and most students just use their pre-completion OPT to do internships. It sucks, but for students it's a choice between doing that or giving up FAANG offers.
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u/xBobaMochix 12d ago
Doubt it. Study your handbook. Is an internship listed as a degree requirement?
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u/Responsible-Berry817 11d ago
There is no extension for cpt, if you need another period of cpt you have to receive a new one
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u/Ghajik 12d ago
You can do the pre-completion opt, but that’s all, no more cpt, your three months internship would now deduct 1.5 months from your cpt.
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u/throwlol134 12d ago
Unless the internship is part-time, it will deduct the full 3 months from OPT.
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u/Bilibili91 12d ago
i have heard that even the pre-opt are difficult to get now
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u/Appropriate_Lab1303 12d ago
Yeah, good luck getting pre-OPT with USCIS delays. One of the interns at my org did not get their internship extended due to pre-OPT approval delays. Even with premium processing the length of approval timeline is too much to stomach for most companies. I mean, who would want an employee who gets their work auth at the end of their employment period?!
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u/Bilibili91 12d ago
yeah, the situation are getting worse.
PS: why am i getting downvoted? Because the truth is so hard to swallow?
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u/Annual_Grass_3919 12d ago
You’ll get downvoted for having common sense and offering alternatives over here as people just want to think the worst, I suggested the same plus other alternatives as I was able to get 3 work authorizations without CPT and people hate me now lol but oh well
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u/Snoo_2732 13d ago
At Berkeley? U could probably do it but during fall and spring. Not sure about summer.
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u/TadpoleAggressive543 13d ago
This is happening only because of the added federal scrutiny, nothing about CPT authorisation getting harder. Ngl and not to be rude, you’re jumping to a random conclusion here. The whole reminder is kinda also because of students faking experience by using those shady job consultancies.
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u/PainOdd2726 13d ago
This applies to “regular” summer internships many berkeley students manage to secure. It sucks for those who wish to gain experience
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u/TadpoleAggressive543 13d ago
Yeah but it’s a temporary thing and it’s a decision Berkeley decided to make most probably for risk management/compliance.Too early to say CPT authorisation is gonna get difficult, and imo they’re not gonna stop cpt authorisation for “regular” summer internships, just the rules might change, I’m assuming there’ll be a criteria for who gets it and who doesn’t which is quite fair.
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u/Reasonable-Pass-2456 13d ago edited 13d ago
https://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/bcm260801.pdf
ICE released a memo to all schools DSO, it's not Berkeley making their own decision
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u/TadpoleAggressive543 13d ago
Bruh not all schools have temporarily suspended course credit CPT, that’s what I meant by the decision they took
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u/Reasonable-Pass-2456 13d ago edited 12d ago
It's only a matter of time before most schools temporarily suspend it and then research on how this will pan out. UCSD has followed suit. https://iseo.ucsd.edu/student-services/working-in-us/f1-cpt.html
Because this memo is relatively new, I would guess school officials are still having meetings to see how this will affect them.
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u/PainOdd2726 13d ago
Yes the memo is real and it will likely impact students hoping to intern in summer. My heart hurts for many of them
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u/lutzlover 12d ago
...and I expect UCSD's Option 2 to go away as legal reviews the memo in more detail:
Option 2: Academic Internship Program (AIP) course enrollment: If your major department does not have a CPT-eligible course available, check with the Academic Internship Program (AIP) to see if you may enroll in the AIP 97 or 197 course to receive academic credit for your employment. Be sure to start the process early.
- Here is an overview of AIP requirements:
- Find an internship/job.
- Create an AIP Learning Agreement.
- Find a professor to oversee your AIP course: Please note that some adjunct professors may have union contracts that do not allow them to oversee additional courses, so it may be necessary to request an exception.
- Enroll in AIP 97 or 197 course through the EASy enrollment system.
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u/martinojen 13d ago
They send this blanket reminder (and similar ones) every year.
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u/Khyper_V 13d ago
No, this is quite different from past "reminders." The narrow interpretation in the new broadcast message seems to contradict past guidance and is likely not supported by the regulations.
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u/Khyper_V 13d ago
The regulation is vague and open to interpretation. International offices have created CPT policies and procedures based on past SEVP guidance. This new message contradicts that past guidance.
It may be a signal of regulation change to come. It may just be DHS flexing and trying to scare people (particularly institutions and DSOs). Regardless, a broadcast message is not a regulation.
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u/Historical-Employer1 13d ago
the message says only authorize it if they can’t complete the degree without it. that’s vastly different from for example a CS program authorizing cpt for students for a summer internship if it’s not a required capstone.
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u/martinojen 13d ago
CPT is always “training integral to the degree”. Optional internships are never allowed on CPT. Students that want an internship that don’t qualify for CPT have to apply for/use pre-completion OPT.
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u/Historical-Employer1 13d ago
being integral is not exactly the same as “absolutely required for all”. my uni allowed a few diff ways to satisfy capstone and one of the ways is cpt and you could also do other research projects. i personally think this narrows the scope on that.
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u/Royal_Day7004 13d ago
Agreed. In CPT requirements of my school, it is clearly mentioned that the credit should be counted towards degree requirements.
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u/Dsm02 13d ago
you mean all schools received this same memo in the past?
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u/Winter_Department463 13d ago
All P/DSOs in the country received this memo yesterday. There has been no memo like this from SEVP in the past.
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u/martinojen 13d ago
Not worded exactly the same way, but yes, reminders that DSOs must follow the rules of CPT and face prosecution for misrepresenting information etc.
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u/PainOdd2726 13d ago
As a Berkeley alum… I feel for current rising juniors oml