Hello,
I am a PhD student on an F1 visa currently in my 6th year of PhD. Last year, I applied for my Master’s degree along the way and I was awarded the Master’s degree. It has been 4 months since I was awarded the Master’s degree by my graduate school. Today, I learned from immigration advising that if I choose to discontinue my PhD, I cannot go on an OPT even if I have a Master’s degree because it has been more than 60 days since I was awarded my Master’s degree and hence the OPT window is over. My only option now is to get a PhD and get an OPT. This is very concerning and I was not aware of this technicality and misinformed by immigration services when I had posed them the same question. Request anyone to help out and please let me know if there are any exceptions that I could look make my case for still getting an OPT with my Masters in Computer Science. Thank you