F1 Visa Holder - CPT Questions

aksargige4

New Member
Hello everybody,
I have a bachelor degree in telecom engineering, that is, a mix of electrical, network and signals, and I acquired my bachelor in my home country, not U.S. Right now, I am enrolled in an MBA degree and am going to start my third quarter of eight quarter(3/8). I wanted to now more about CPT, so what I did was to read about it and to contact my DSO, even though I got answer from her and read a lot of about it I am full of doubts.
According to my DSO, in order for me to apply for an internship through CPT I have to finish four quarters (would be possible only by the end of this year) and I would finish my degree in the end of the next year. However, according to the ICE website, I may enroll in the first semester CPT if I am in a graduate level (which I am) and if my program requires it.
When I communicate with my DSO about the CPT process she stated that "We do not support CPT" due to the fact that it takes a while to get all the paper work and would be better for me to wait a few more months and apply for post OPT once I graduated. According to USCIS the CPT process and paper work takes up to 4 months to be done, right? So it leaves me with plenty of time, around 8 month to do internship! Can my DSO/university neglect CPT to me?
Other question that I have is, my CPT needs to be correlated with my currently degree - MBA - or it can be based on my bachelor degree - telecom engineering? Depending on the answer for this question, I have the possibility to add an emphasis with my MBA, for instance, an MBA with emphasis in IT management to become more similar to my undergrad degree.
I have a meeting with my DSO to discuss this matter this week. I would like to know as much as I can in regards with the CPT. Some additional information that may be helpful:
- I graduated in engineer around a year ago and within six months I started my MBA degree;
- I had a total of 8 months of experience in regards to my major;
- I would like to stay in the STEM area due to post-OPT extension;
Thanks everybody.
 
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