CPT while you are still a nursing student
Curricular Practical Training lets you work while you are still enrolled, but only where the work is genuinely part of your program. That door narrowed sharply in August 2026.
What changed
SEVP issued two broadcast messages. The first, on August 12, 2026, reminded designated school officials of their liability and restated that CPT must be an integral and required part of an established curriculum rather than something arranged to provide employment.
The second, on August 24, 2026, is the one that bites. Where practical training is integral to a curriculum, participation must be required of every student in the program regardless of citizenship. An optional elective that happens to involve CPT does not meet the standard.
Neither message changed the regulation. Both changed enforcement posture and DSO exposure, which in practice is the same thing for you. Several universities, UC Davis among them, paused categories of CPT approval in late August and early September while they reviewed the guidance.
What to get right
Talk to your designated school official first and early. They authorize it, they carry the liability, and last year’s arrangement may not survive this year’s guidance.
Watch the twelve-month rule, and note what it does not cover. Twelve months or more of full-time CPT, meaning more than 20 hours a week, destroys your eligibility for post-completion OPT at that education level. Part-time CPT does not count against OPT at all. One trap in the arithmetic: full-time CPT you used at a previous school at the same education level still counts toward the twelve months.
For a nursing student that trade is almost never worth taking, because OPT is the bridge to a sponsored job and CPT is not.
And do not use CPT as a workaround. It authorizes training tied to your curriculum. It does not authorize employment you found on your own and would like to keep.
If you are a U.S.-educated nursing graduate looking for an employer that sponsors, apply to inSpring.
Last checked September 9, 2026. Sources: SEVP broadcast messages 2608-01, August 12, 2026, and 2608-02, August 24, 2026.