OPT Denied - Reason not meeting 1 year full time student requirement

[oltan]

Hi,

How can I appeal/re-open this to prove that I am full-time studnet since 1.5 years.

Jan 2008: Started full time study (Master) on H4.
Jan 2009: Went to India to change visa to F1, re-entered US on F1 stamped visa.
May 2009: Graduated.
June 2009: Received OPT denial.

Denial reason from USCIS: Not meeting 1 year full time study requirement.

Since Jan 2008, I am enrolled in school as full time student and taking enough courses to maintain full time student requirements. In Jan 2009, when I went to India for F1 visa, school gave me I-20 with start date as Jan 2009 and End date as May 2009. Copy of this I-20 was part of OPT application that I sent to USCIS. In OPT application packet, there was no document that said - I am a full time student since Jan 2008. There was one more new I-20 (for OPT) in the OPT application packet, and last page of that I-20 mentioned "Met 1 year full time student requirement". Based on these documents, USCIS assumed I finished Masters in 6 months (Jan 2009 to May 2009) and sent denial.

Please help, how can I resolve this? Did anyone face similar issue?

Thanks,

 

[djboom]

For OPT, the person has to have been a student in good standing for one academic year. This does NOT have to be in F1 status. But of course, at the time of applying for OPT, the student has to be in F1 status.
The law is 8 CFR 214.2(f).