. H1-b only starts from October 1st. But OPT may expire earlier. In most cases in June/July. After OPT expires, you have 60 days grace period. For example, your OPT expires on June 1st, then you cannot work after June 2nd. Then your 60 days grace period continues until end of July. Then you have status gap in August and September. If you join any institute, remember to cover this gap, there is no point in joining Kaplan during the grace period. Talk with kaplan about the validity of the I-20 they'll issue. To my knowledge, their courses are max. of 2 months. I doubt they'll issue I-20 for more than 2 months. As for me, I'm joining college for the fall semester, which starts late August. And that's fine, as long as I get my I-20 before my 60 days grace period ends.