Change of Status to H-4 - effect on priority date; maternity leave on H-1

Question details

1. Planning to transfer from H1B to H4, I-140 approved with Jan2015 priority date. Can I keep the priority date after I change to H4? Intend to come back to H1 after few months. 2. Currently I'm 7 months pregnant and I work for a consulting company (employer) on H1B visa, Can I take maternity leave on H1B? If yes, for how long? will it be a paid or unpaid leave? If not do I need to convert status from H1B to H4? If yes, can I change it back to H1B and work again or need to apply for a fresh visa?

ANSWER

Here is an interesting question, if I am on H-1 and I convert to H-4, does that kill or affect my priority date ? Answer is no. If you were on H-1  and you had filed a Green Card, you got a priority date and I-140 was approved now you changed to H-4 that does not kill your priority date. That's not the problem.

And the second part of the question was can I take maternity leave on H-1?

Yes, absolutely. How much you can take that depends upon the State law, so the Federal law and the state law combined that's the best way to decide. So the maternity leave definitely allowed and sometimes if in addition to maternity leave if some have medical necessity and you need to take more time off , you should be able to do as well and you would be considered to be on H-1 and you don't need to convert to H-4   for maternity leave reasons but you can do that also and you can convert back to H-1 later on.  

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