AILA recently posted an article on Curricular Practical Training (CPT) functioning as employment that is part of a student’s specified degree curriculum.  

It was posted in “AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 08091769 (posted Sep. 17, 2008)“

Curricular Practical Training (CPT) is employment that is part of a student’s specified degree curriculum. The Designated School Official (DSO) authorizes CPT for students before they can begin wok by annotating their I-20 in accordance with the 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(i). Unlike Optional Practical Training (OPT), no employment authorization from USCIS is needed. This raises two questions, which were posed to DHS by AILA’s E-Verify Liaison Committee. DHS’ responses are below:

1. Is an E-Verify employer required to put CPT students through the E-Verify system?

Answer: “Yes, an employer must run E-Verify queries on CPT students.”

2. If yes, is the E-Verify system capable of automatically checking the student’s I-20 to produce an automatic confirmation of employment eligibility?

Answer: “No, the system cannot automatically check a student’s I-20. E-Verify does not currently access SEVIS during the automated first step of the verification process. Students under CPT will always be sent to secondary verification. He or she should, however, have employment eligibility confirmed within 24 hours provided his/her record can be located in SEVIS during secondary verification.”