On OPT with 90 days to spend: a plan for the first two weeks

Your situation

You’ve graduated. Your OPT has started. Every day you have no job counts towards a limit: 90 days on OPT, or 150 in total if you add STEM OPT. Your end date and your count are on your paperwork, and your DSO can confirm them.

Most people spend the first week unsure where to start and the second week sending the same resume to everything. That’s the trap.

Days 1 to 3: get the basics straight

• Check your clock with your DSO and write down the date you can’t pass.
• Update one resume. One, not five. Put the dates, the role and the skills the way you’d say them in an interview.
• Decide your honest answer to “Will you now or in the future require sponsorship?” On OPT it is usually Yes, because you’ll need an H-1B later. Decide it once so you don’t improvise on every form.

Days 4 to 10: aim at employers who have sponsored before

This is the step that saves the most time. A company with no record of sponsoring is a long shot even for a great candidate. A company that has filed H-1Bs before already knows how.

A record is not a promise. It means they have done it, which is a far better bet than a company that never has. Put those employers first, and spend a little time on each application instead of a lot of time on a hundred.

• Apply to 5 to 10 well-chosen roles a day, not 50.
• Skip postings that say they won’t sponsor. Don’t argue with them.
• If a university or research employer fits your field, ask whether it’s cap-exempt, which means no lottery.

Days 11 to 14: look at what happened

Count replies. If nobody has answered after 30 to 40 good applications, change something: the resume, the roles, the way you answer the sponsorship question. Don’t just send more.

Tell your DSO about any new employer or address within 10 days. It’s easy to forget and it matters.

Where Knock fits

Knock shows each employer’s recent H-1B record on the job, ranks jobs against your experience, hides postings that say they won’t sponsor unless you ask to see them, and fills the form from your own answers. You read it and send it. It doesn’t get you a job; it stops you spending your 90 days on the wrong ones.