reply to mylvka,
That makes sense. OPT. BTW, I don;t think there is a restriction regarding 20hrs/wk when you are on OPT. As a regular student, you a limited to a max of 20hrs/wk and mind you, it is within campus.
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There are a few kinds of EADs that can apply to students in school, like Optional Practical Training, Economic hardship and others. I applied 3 EADs because the INS has a stupid rule that the EAD duration cannot exceed a period (I don't remeber if it's a semester or a year) and maximum working hour cannot exceed 20 per week. So my total duration was only about one year. My OPT was valid from the date of approval but the time between RD and AD were lost. I only used OPT for 3-4 months and my H-1B was approved.