The EECS Undergraduate Office has launched several online portals for international students to request letters of support from the department.
Departmental support for CPT, OPT, and I-20 extensions is intended for students in their sophomore year and up (you must have officially declared and joined Course 6). The department cannot provide CPT/OPT support letters for first-year students; the earliest eligible term the department can support CPT is IAP sophomore year. During term time (fall/spring) the department will only support practical training where you are physically located in Cambridge/Boston either working in-person for a metro Boston-based organization or working fully remotely for organizations based elsewhere.
MIT’s International Student Office (ISO) has advised us that, to maintain compliance with federal regulations for CPT, CPT may not be authorized for students who have met or exceeded 180 units beyond general institute requirements (GIR) at the time they participate in the practical training experience. You may read more at ISO’s website here, items g. and h. under “how to apply”).
Therefore, if you will exceed 180 units beyond the GIRs by the time you wish to engage in practical training (or by the time you will complete practical training), we advise that you to instead request pre-completion OPT. Processing times for OPT are more lengthy than CPT, so make sure to request your letter from EECS well in advance (you do not need a confirmed job offer to make your request). You can read more about pre-completion OPT here (ISO’s site).
Deadline to request CPT letter of support from EECS: 30 days before start of CPT term; departmental letters will be issued after drop date preceding IAP and summer CPT terms. For fall/spring departmental letters will be issued after add date.
See additional policies and requirements on the ISO site, including important dates for these processes.