(UNITED STATES) Aman Goyal lost his tech job in September 2025 while working on F-1 post-completion Optional Practical Training (OPT), and he still landed a new role at T-Mobile within 60 days while staying compliant with OPT rules.
For international graduates on an F-1 Visa, that kind of turnaround matters because a layoff does not pause OPT; it starts an unemployment clock that students must manage fast and carefully.
Goyal, 26, had been in an AI product role at an ad tech company when he was laid off. He is now an Associate Product Manager at T-Mobile.
His story gets repeated in student circles because it mixes two things that must happen at the same time: a job search that moves quickly, and immigration compliance that leaves no room for missed reporting or non-qualifying work.
The pages below turn his experience into a repeatable process, with rules grounded in DHS and USCIS guidance. It is education, not legal advice, and your designated school official (DSO) remains the first stop for case-specific questions.
A key planning point is that many students aim to land work well before the maximum unemployment limit. That creates a cushion for delays like background checks, offer negotiations, or a late start date.
VisaVerge.com reports that this “work backward from the unemployment balance” mindset is one of the most reliable ways to keep an OPT job search from turning into a status emergency.
Aman Goyal’s 60-day playbook after a layoff on OPT
Goyal did not treat the layoff as a normal job change. He treated it as a compliance countdown.
He kept his actions simple: keep the OPT record clean, keep interviews moving, and keep documentation ready in case a future immigration benefit depends on it.
Three habits show up in his account again and again. First, he did not wait for referrals to work.
After applying to three roles at T-Mobile, the only callback came from the application without a referral, which pushed him to focus on visibility and follow-up rather than name-dropping.
Second, he paid for structured preparation. He bought a $50 interview prep book, Decode and Conquer, and used its 20,000+ member Slack community to set up mock interviews, including with senior professionals from Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.
Third, he networked past the usual “intro” stage. He used conversations to learn interview patterns, then adjusted quickly as he moved through six rounds that covered product design, system thinking, and AI topics.
That pace is intense, but the logic is simple: every week without qualifying work burns unemployment time.
If you want a deeper look at the first shock many students face after a job ends, the scenario described in laid off after 2 days shows how quickly timing problems can appear.
Why OPT compliance is an unemployment clock, not a classic grace period
Post-completion OPT is tied to unemployment tracking, not to a fixed grace period that starts the day your job ends. The rule is cumulative: days without qualifying employment add up across the OPT period, and once you exceed the maximum, your status is at risk under 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(E).
If you later qualify for the STEM OPT extension, the total unemployment allowance across the full OPT plus STEM period is higher. Still, the same concept applies: you are always counting remaining unemployment days, not counting on a single “60-day grace period” like some other work-authorized categories use.
DHS explains the consequence in plain language on Study in the States: “SEVP officials can manually terminate a student who accrues 90 total days of unemployment. If your immigration record is terminated, you must leave the U.S. immediately; there is no grace period.”
The practical takeaway after a layoff is to track your remaining unemployment balance immediately and build a buffer for hiring delays. Readers who want a focused rule explainer often start with 90-day unemployment rule, then confirm details with their school.
January 2025 to January 2026: the official context that shapes layoff decisions
USCIS updated public guidance on layoffs and next steps with its January 24, 2025 posting, “Options for Nonimmigrant Workers Following Termination of Employment.”
The agency warned that people often misunderstand their options: “When H-1B or other noncitizen workers are laid off, they may not be aware of their options and may wrongly assume that they have no choice but to leave the country within 60 days.”
That sentence is aimed broadly at nonimmigrant workers, and it helps show why confusion spreads quickly during layoffs.
For OPT holders, the key is that F-1 OPT does not run on the H-1B-style grace period model. H-1B workers often talk about a fixed grace period after termination. OPT works differently.
Your eligibility continues as long as you meet OPT rules, including qualifying employment, timely reporting, and correct documentation. In real life, “not forced to leave immediately” means you still must treat each day and each report as part of your status record, because future benefits can depend on it.
Three compliance pillars show up in most OPT problems: reporting changes on time, confirming that work qualifies as OPT employment, and keeping records that explain how the job connects to your major.
Qualifying employment and reporting: the checklist that stops the clock
Start with reporting, because reporting is how SEVIS stays accurate. Students report changes through the SEVP Portal and, in some schools, through a DSO workflow as well.
The rule is straightforward: report changes within 10 days, including employment status and address. Missing a report risks SEVIS problems that are hard to fix later.
Next, confirm the job qualifies. For OPT, employment must be directly related to your major area of study. Treat “directly related” like an explanation you might need to defend later.
Write a short description of your duties and map them to coursework, projects, or academic training. Keep offer letters, onboarding emails, and role descriptions in one folder.
Hours and start dates matter too. OPT employment must meet the minimum hours expectation, and the safest approach is to treat the first day of actual work as the day that stops unemployment counting, not the day you sign an offer.
If a start date slips, your unemployment days still add up.
Unpaid or volunteer roles can be lawful ways to stop the unemployment clock on initial post-completion OPT, as long as the work meets OPT rules and does not violate labor laws. Treat this option with care.
On STEM OPT, the rules tighten and unpaid roles are not allowed in the same way, because the STEM extension requires a structured training plan and stronger employer oversight. A deeper STEM-focused discussion appears in STEM OPT consequences.
2025–2026 policy signals that affect hiring speed and student planning
Policy proposals and fee changes shape employer timelines, even when they do not directly change OPT eligibility.
On August 28, 2025, DHS proposed replacing “Duration of Status” (D/S) with fixed end dates for F and J visas. Conceptually, a fixed end date system would raise the stakes on paperwork timing and documentation discipline, because students would plan around dates that look more like expirations.
Cost is another pressure point. As of September 21, 2025, a Presidential Proclamation introduced a fee for new H-1B petitions.
Higher petition costs can make some employers slower to sponsor, especially for early-career roles, and it can stretch decision cycles beyond what OPT job seekers want.
Students often respond by widening the employer list, aiming for teams that hire on predictable headcount cycles, and keeping several interview tracks moving at once.
The broader risk climate is discussed in policy risks and in H-1B portability.
A repeatable job-search process that matches OPT timing
Treat your search like a time-to-offer plan. Hiring takes time even in good markets, so build a schedule that assumes delays.
Many students fail by running one interview process at a time. Run several in parallel so a rejection does not reset your week.
Use a simple weekly structure:
- Days 1–3 after a layoff: check your unemployment balance, update your resume, and clean up your reporting with the SEVP Portal and your DSO.
- Week 1: apply broadly, then choose a smaller set of roles for deeper outreach to recruiters and hiring managers.
- Weeks 2–6: stack interviews by keeping two or three active pipelines, and keep practicing daily with mocks and feedback.
- Weeks 6–8: push for final rounds, references, and start dates that avoid a late start that wastes unemployment days.
Direct outreach is often the fastest accelerant. Goyal used Hunter.io to locate hiring manager emails and sent professional notes after he applied.
That approach is not about spamming. It is about making it easy for someone to match your profile to an open role quickly.
If your major and the role do not line up neatly, you still need a clear explanation of the link, and a compliant backup plan. Students who take short-term roles outside their first target field sometimes use the approach described in temporary OPT opportunities.
Community support is also practical, not just emotional. Mock interviews shorten your learning curve, and peers often share how specific teams interview. That turns anxiety into a checklist you can practice.
The numbers from Goyal’s case, translated into weekly actions
Goyal’s 60 days were not magic. They were scheduled. He applied to multiple roles, then tested a simple truth: referrals help, but they do not guarantee attention.
The callback that mattered came from the application without a referral. So he increased his surface area by reaching out to decision-makers directly.
He also invested in preparation in a way many students skip. A $50 book became a gateway into a 20,000+ person community, where he arranged dozens of mock interviews. That volume matters because product interviews often test the same skills repeatedly, but with different framing.
By the time he reached real interviews, his answers were already structured. The six-round loop he described is also a warning about pacing. Multi-round processes eat calendar time.
You cannot wait until you “feel ready” to start applying. You get ready while interviewing. That is how students keep momentum without losing unemployment days.
Official pages to check before you make decisions
USCIS and DHS publish the rules that control your status, and those pages are the best place to confirm updates before acting.
- USCIS’s layoff guidance, Options following termination, gives general context on what nonimmigrant workers can do after a job ends.
- DHS Study in the States, unemployment counter, explains how SEVIS tracks unemployment days and why SEVIS termination can trigger immediate departure.
- The USCIS Policy Manual, F-1 students, is a reliable reference for definitions and policy framing that can come up in later immigration filings.
Bring these links to your DSO discussions, keep copies of your reporting confirmations, and store a clear “job related to major” explanation for every OPT role you take in the United States 🇺🇸.
How an F-1 Visa Holder Landed a Dream Tech Job Within 60 Days After La…
This article explores how F-1 OPT students can navigate layoffs by following a structured 60-day playbook. Using Aman Goyal’s transition to T-Mobile as a case study, it emphasizes the importance of tracking unemployment days, direct manager outreach, and community-based interview prep. It also clarifies the difference between OPT unemployment limits and H-1B grace periods while highlighting 2025 policy shifts and mandatory reporting requirements to maintain legal immigration status.
