If you are an international student in the United States, the move from OPT to H1B is the single most important transition in your early career. Get the timing wrong and you run out of work authorization. Get it right and you buy yourself years to build a career here. Here is how the timeline actually works and where people lose the game.
The clock you are actually on
OPT gives you 12 months of work authorization after you graduate. If your degree is on the STEM list, you can extend it by 24 more months, for a total of 36. That window is not just time to work. It is your runway to win the H1B lottery, and a STEM degree gives you three separate attempts at it. A non-STEM degree gives you one, maybe two. That difference is enormous, and it is why the STEM OPT path is worth protecting carefully.
The H1B cap registration happens once a year, in March, with selections announced shortly after and start dates on October 1. So the real question during OPT is simple: how many March lotteries can you get into before your work authorization runs out? Every year you are employed and registered is one more pull.
Where people lose
The most common failure is starting the job search too late. Your employer has to register you in March, which means you need an offer by February at the latest, which means you should be applying in the fall. Students who wait until OPT is already ticking lose an entire lottery cycle they could have entered.
The second failure is staying out of status. The grace periods are short. After your program ends you have 60 days. During OPT you cannot accrue more than 90 days of unemployment. Blow past either and you are out, regardless of how strong your candidacy is. Treat status like the hard constraint it is.
The new wage-based odds change your strategy
Starting with the FY2027 cap, the H1B lottery is no longer random. Selection is weighted by wage level, so a higher-paid role gives you more entries and far better odds. A Level I entry-level offer now sits around 15 percent odds, while a Level IV role is closer to 61 percent. For OPT students, that means the role you take matters more than ever. Pushing your offer up a wage level, or taking a role with more scope, directly improves your chance of staying. You can see how roles map to wage levels and pay on the H1B Salary Database.
There is also a cost change worth knowing. A new six-figure fee applies to consular processing, but if you are already in the US on OPT you can avoid it by filing a change of status from inside the country. That is one more reason to stay in status and file domestically.
Make every application count
With a fixed number of lottery cycles, you cannot afford a slow, scattered search. Build a target list of employers who sponsor your role, check that they file regularly on the H1B sponsors page, and apply early and often. Tailor each resume to the job description so it clears the ATS, because a filtered resume never reaches the recruiter who could sponsor you.
Your OPT window is a countdown to a fixed number of H1B lotteries. Start early, never fall out of status, aim for roles at higher wage levels, and file from inside the country. Those four moves decide whether you stay.