Anybody knows if we can start our job without OPT? I have applied for it but not sure if i will receive it on time to start my job. Is there any way to expedite it  or work the  other way around?

it is illegal to start working before you have the card in your hand. you could call USCIS and REQUEST them to expedite, but that is only a request and most of the time it is not honored.

thanks kaji sahab for the suggestion...anybody else?

Kaji is right. if you start w/o the card you might be denied an H1B later. dont take that chance. Take a vacation for a while.

You can't work without the OPT card in hand. I also had the same problem. USCIS took exactly 3 months to make a decision on my case (regular, no RFE or anything). Unfortunately my requested starting date was 2 weeks earlier than the decision date. I thought USCIS would make adjustment on the starting date, but they didn't. So I lost 2 weeks of my OPT time. This was in January 2010.

A friend of mine also had the same problem this fall, but USCIS somehow adjusted his starting date. I don't understand how USCIS operates.

Bengaltiger, thank you for the information, so in your friends case, what did he do exactly to adjust the timing? Did he call USCIC?