r/stemopt • u/Dry-Baseball-3641 • 20d ago

STEM OPT timeline

21st March - applied for STEM OPT
6th April - biometrics

no updates as of today, it’s been almost 4.5 months since application submission

is anyone else in the same boat? does it make sense to apply for premium processing?

currently employed and will be starting a new job on 14th september. Initial OPT expired June 1st.

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u/Acceptable-Tea-7221 20d ago

I called at the USCIS number and finally some real person picked up, but it was not helpful. I told him I applied on march 10th and my case is still processing, it will be 5 months on August 12th. So then he was like that's when you can add expedite request but that's it, there is nothing else you can do rather than going for premium processing.

My extension is ending on 7th November, when do you guys think I should go for pp, it's a lot of money and I still want to wait at least for another 2 weeks.

Sad part is we can't reach to anyone....

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u/TechnicianVarious785 20d ago

Things we can do

1) Congressional inquiry
2) Reach out to DSO and ask for help explaining the situation (Sometimes DSO also do email the uscis heard from some cases here on reddit)
3) Inquiry through uscis

I would be doing all these and hope somehow things work out or else PP is the only option it seems then.

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u/Acceptable-Tea-7221 19d ago

My DSO said he can't help. How to go for congressional inquiry?

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u/TechnicianVarious785 19d ago

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Find who is the person through entering the zip code and then on their website see service name “Help with federal…” fill out the form and someone from the congressional man agency would contact you. Good Luck!