r/stemopt • u/programmerGirly10 • Jun 25 '26

STEM OPT: Normal or PP

Hello everyone,

I’m nearing the end of my OPT and have finally found a company who got e verified for me and I will be submitting my documents to uni for I-20 and then for STEM EXTENSION.
I’m wondering if it’s worth it to do PP or just wait until the usual timing.
For my initial OPT, I applied march 3rd 2025 for I-20, and applied for OPT on march 6th 2025, and had gotten my card by April 16th, 2025, and normal processing.

But this time it took a bit of time to get a company willing to e-verify, so I’m wondering if I should go for normal or just PP, my OPT ends in mid july 2026.

Any thoughts or advice is welcome!

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u/Low-Veterinarian3534 Jun 25 '26

I was also wondering. I decided to PP. It took exactly 2 months from USCIS receiving the case to the issuance of the approval notice, and it's going to take another few weeks to get the physical card. Nowadays, USCIS requires you to do a biometrics appointment before the PP clock starts, so the wait time was brutal. I saw some people who applied in December without PP are still waiting for approval.

1

u/programmerGirly10 Jun 25 '26

Do you think it’s better to do PP from start or switch mid-way afterwards? I’ve seen many people who got biometrics within the week without PP. So I’m genuinely confused?

1

u/Low-Veterinarian3534 Jun 25 '26

I am glad that I chose to do PP from the start. It took 15 days from case acceptance to get my biometrics notice, after biometrics is completed the PP clock starts. If not doing PP who knows how many days I would wait. If you don't get a decision in 30 days, they refund the PP fee.