Your case seems little complicated. To be honest I am not sure how its is going to work out. In other cases, generally they put the requested start date even thought they approve OPT at a later date than the requested date. I don't want to discourage you, but I am going to share my experice if it is going to be helpful to you. Here is what happened to me. I applied my OPT in the middle of Oct. 2009 (graduated in December 2009) with the starting date of Jan. 4, 2010. I had a job lined up so I decided to put Jan 4, 2010 as the start date  USCIS (Texas center) did not ask me for any document but it took them exactly 3 months to approve my OPT. My OPT was approved ~Jan 12, 2010 but they used the start date as Jan 4, 2010 (which I had requested). I received my OPT card on Jan 17 and  started my job from Jan. 18, 2010. So I lost about 2 weeks of my OPT time.

bengaltiger · Sep 15, 2010 10:45 PM

hello,sorry to know about your situation. I dont know how the system works, but i will tell you my experience. Prolly, thats the only thing I can do apart from wishing your opt card arrives on time. I applied for my opt card late december and requested the starting beginning feb. but when they actually processed and finalized the process, it was few days  (3), say 6th, days after my request date. they adjusted my date, on opt card, accordingly, ie beginning 6th. but it was 12th when i received the document, (due to delivery time). I used to check uscis website every day, and i knew that my document was accepted on 9th. so the website is not 100% 'updated', but we should be thankful that its there to know our immigration status. i applied from California USCIS, if thats important. pls dont panic, everything will be ok. hope that helps.  notavailable

notavailable · Sep 16, 2010 12:04 AM