Number 72
Volume X
Washington, D.C
A. STATUTORY NUMBERS
This bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers during December for: “Final Action Dates” and “Dates for Filing Applications,” indicating when immigrant visa applicants should be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to the National Visa Center.
USCIS recently updated the following form(s):
Form I-131A, Application for Travel Document (Carrier Documentation)
Published in the December 2022 issue of ALI CLE’s The Practical Lawyer
This article is part of the continuing series of interviews between Rajiv S. Khanna, principal of The Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khanna, PC, (www.Immigration.Com), and leading practitioners across the country, designed to provide personal and professional insights into various areas of the law.
Read more by clicking the pdf attachment.
Planning to change my employer. Priority Date: Sept 2014 (EB2). H1: on my 5th Year (Filed for an extension it is currently in process). My plan is to change my employer once my extension is approved but I have the following questions. I am 100% sure my employer is going to withdraw my I-140. How is my H1 transfer going to work?
First of all the moment, your I-140 is approved no matter which category EB-1 or EB-2, the Priority Date is yours to keep that means if you got your green card filed in let's say 2017 and you left this employer after the I-140 approval, they revoked your I-140 and you started another green card in 2020 your Priority Date will be still 2017 because your I-140 was approved. So the moment the I-140 was approved the Priority Date becomes your property and it can be carried across categories, across employers, and across geographical areas. So if you go from a PERM filing in New York to an employer in California and your previous filing was EB-3 next filing is EB2 or even EB-1 you can carry the date of the work petition as long as the I-140 was approved. The moment the I-140 is approved, the Priority Date is yours.
There are limited exceptions unless the I-140 is revoked for fraud, etc., by the USCIS. Even if the employer revokes the I-140 you will keep your Priority Date. In addition to that, if the I-140 gets approved and stays approved for 180 days you will not only carry your Priority Date you will carry your right to extend your H-1 through any employer indefinitely. You will get a second benefit after 180 days and if the lawyer revokes the I-140 you will still get the benefit of both Priority Date and the right to extend your H-1 through any employer. The government has also said if you have an H-4 EAD for your spouse, your I-40 stayed approved for 180 days your wife's or your husband's H-4 EAD is safe even if the old employer revokes the I-140 later on as long as the I-140 stayed approved for 180 days. So if you left but the I-140 stayed approved for 180 days H-4 EAD is safe. That, in a nutshell, is the general law. More
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
I am currently on an H-1B visa and working remotely. My h1b petition has two addresses, home (VA) and office (PA). The office headquarters is in NJ.
My employer filled PWD in Mar2022 which got approved in Oct 2022. When I reached out to them for the next step, they mentioned that there were some issues with the previously filled PWD, so they had to refiled my PWD in Jul2022.
Based on my discussion, I came to know that they did not mention the main headquarters address, which is in NJ, and put the address of the PA office, which is in my h1b petition. They said because I am a remote employee, they are supposed to put the address of the headquarters.
Q1: Are we supposed to put the headquarters address when we file GC for a remote job?
Q2: Are we supposed to put the headquarters address when we file h1b for the remote job? Or is any office ok?
In my view if this job is remote it should be advertised nationally and you should put either the corporate headquarters or the principal place of business. You should not put an office where you are not going to work as this could be problematic. Make sure you have a conversation with your lawyers.
My last H-1B was recently revoked four months after receiving a Green Card and the company attorney says automatic revocation is a standard practice by USCIS not always followed. But most people I know did not have their H-1B revoked after Green card approval so I am a bit concerned why this happened to my case only.
There is absolutely no need to be concerned. This is by operation of law. But, just to keep matters orderly it is a good policy to send in a revocation notice and that should not be of any concern to you.
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Note: Unless the context shows otherwise, all answers here were provided by Rajiv and were compiled and reported by our editorial team from comments, blog and community calls on immigration.com. Where transcribed from audio/video, a verbatim transcript is provided. Therefore, it may not conform to the written grammatical or syntactical form.
My spouse is a dentist from India and converted to F-1 from H-4 on Sep 29, 2022. She pursued a few courses for MBA (non-stem) between March 2022 and Jun 2022. Now she is completing the remaining courses of her MBA on F-1 for the next 12 months.
My queries are-
1. Does she need to be on F-1 status for a min 365 days to be eligible for OPT?
2. If we ever need to change to H-4 status again (stamped till Aug 2024), can she travel to India and come back without F-1 stamping? or a COS application from F-1 to H-4 ( that may take 6 months) could be a better option for EAD application.
1. The 365 days requirement is not required. What you need is one academic year or two if there is a need to change to H-4.
2. If she has an H-4 stamping already there is no need to go to India. All she has to do is drive to Canada or Mexico and return showing her H-4 visa stamping.
Note: To be eligible to apply for OPT, you must:
I filed my I140 with 180 days after Perm is approved. But after that, the I140 is denied and my Perm is expired. Can I fresh file I140 again the my expired Perm. Thank you.
There may be a typo in your question. If the first I-140 was filed within 180 days of the PERM validity period, the second or subsequent I-140 can be filed outside the 180 days. No problem.
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Note: Unless the context shows otherwise, all answers here were provided by Rajiv and were compiled and reported by our editorial team from comments, blog and community calls on immigration.com. Where transcribed from audio/video, a verbatim transcript is provided. Therefore, it may not conform to the written grammatical or syntactical form.
We are looking to apply for an E2 visa being Canadian Citizens born in India. Seeking your advice on a couple of questions- we have pending F3 status immigration with a 2011 priority date, can the primary applicant on the E2 application be my wife, who is also the primary applicant on F3 immigration? Would you recommend going through consular processing or an adjustment of status for my wife, considering we have a pending immigration file?
In my opinion that can be done because the E-2 visa is kind of a dual intent visa. It allows you to have a green card pending as long as you have no intention to violate U.S immigration laws and you have the intention to go back to your home country if required.
1) How long does one have to wait in total if the company applied for PERM (EB2 - MS CS degree), and THEN Concurrently applied for I-140 (premium) and I-485 and the country of birth is UAE?
2) Can the above be done on an F-1 (OPT + STEM OPT) Visa instead of an H-1B? And any potential issues for F-1 in this case?
3) In this scenario, how would it work if the person also submits NIW in parallel with PERM?
My status changed from F-1 to H-1B status this year on Oct 01, 2022. Since I am now on an H-1B visa, I am planning to buy a house soon, before the end of this year, and my plan is also to rent out other rooms and maybe Airbnb in the future. I researched this is considered passive income and is legal but:
1. I was wondering if I can do the same by opening an LLC. Will this still be considered passive income?
2. Another question, since my status changed from F-1 to H-1 this year, for 2022 taxes, should I still fill out the 1040 NR form or not?
I really cannot tell you that there is a clear guidance from the USCIS on this issue. I would avoid this unless you are the adventurous kind. Just remember one thing: the fact that you were engaged in unauthorized or questionable employment or income generation is less damaging to you than lying about it.
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