Curricular Practical Training

Curricular Practical Training is work authorization granted to students on F-1 visas for paid internships or positions off campus and directly related to their majors. CPT allows you to work 20 hours or less each week during the academic year and up to 40 hours during the holiday and summer breaks. Employers may or may not require that a student obtain a Social Security number. Please discuss this with your employer. You should not begin work until your CPT is approved by the International Adviser.

To be eligible for CPT

• You must have been in lawful status as a full-time student at CSU for one full academic year. If your program requires immediate experience a Graduate student may receive permission to begin CPT immediately. There is no exception to this rule for undergraduate students.
• Your training must be directly related to your field of study and correspond with your educational level
• Your training must be a requirement of the program, and you must receive course credit
• Your CPT request dates must align with the current semester start and end dates

Applying for CPT

If you want to apply for CPT, please download the following checklist and make sure you gather all of the necessary documents before making an appointment with the international student coordinator. In order to apply you must have your academic adviser complete the CPT Verification Form below.

• Download the CPT Checklist (DocuSign)
• Download the CPT Verification Form (DocuSign) - to be completed by your academic advisor
• Form Employment Letter (DocuSign) - may be used by employer instead of formal letter

CPT Approval

Once approved a new I-20 will be issued. More than one employer can be entered at a time so please combine employment offers as much as possible to decrease the number of I-20's that need to be printed.

CPT must be approved for each semester with new approval forms and employment letter submitted.

Forms must be received one week prior to performance/employment start.