Polarization maintaining optical fibers and methods for making the same are disclosed herein. According to one embodiment, a polarization maintaining optical fiber includes a cladding portion and a core portion disposed in the cladding portion. The core portion includes a first core region having a first coefficient of thermal expansion CTE1 and a second core region having a second coefficient of thermal expansion CTE2. The first coefficient of thermal expansion CTE1 is not equal to the second coefficient of thermal expansion CTE2. At least one of the first core region and the second core region is non-circular symmetric with respect to a centerline of the polarization maintaining optical fiber.