Thanks to Rajiv and his team. My LC was filed in Nov' 99 and got approved on Nov'12th 2000. Applying for I-140. This team is very prompt, patient, energetic and knowledgeable. The team reply to every question very carefully. Rajiv even replied to some personal immigration questions when I need to change my wife's H4 status to F1 (we went to Mexico for this). Thanks to Rajiv for all his answers and suggestions. GC is a major milestone in our life, for those who want to make a career in U.S. We need patience and above all must follow the attorney's suggestions for successfully getting the GC.
Green card experience : I would like to thank Mr Rajiv Khanna, Fidelina and their staff for all the help they provided through my Green card process. I am glad I selected them as my lawyers and would recommend others too if they want a hasle free green card processing. My Labour was done in Feb 98 and it came in under 6 months. We tried for EB2 I140 but since I did not have masters, we got an RFE. We selected EB3 as an option then but due to some confusion at the VSC side, my I140 was denied, they thought we are asking for EB2 again. My date had luckily become current at that time. Due to the quick response from Fedilina, my 140 was approved in about a week or so. That was something really extraordinary and I am glad Fidelina was handling my case. We are able to file 485 at that time, Aug 99. Got the EAD in about 3 months. But unfortunately, the dates went back. At that time, my wife’s 140 got approved in EB2 and through another lawyer. Her date was current. We were in a dilemma whether to file another 485 while earlier 485 was still pending, do CP or just wait. We finally decided to go for CP. We had our interview on 25 October at Delhi and had to wait for 2 weeks at delhi because of Name check problem. Fidelina had been nice to answer my queries every now and then through the whole process. The CP process was very smooth without any problems. If anybody has any specific question, please write to me at KHERAA@YAHOO.COM and I will be really glad to answer.
Rajiv's staff is well informed, prompt and very friendly. I had no problem during all the phases of processing. I received prompt response to my emails and Rajiv or his staff members were easily available to answer any questions. Further he has a real good system to organize and store documents; because of which I never had to refer to any of my old documents over the course of my 3.5 years of Green card processing. Further his consultation fees are reasonable. I would recommend his services.
Discussion Topics:
FAQ: What is the meaning of a US “visa canceled without prejudice”? || I have an Approved I-140 from a previous job. My new employer has initiated the PERM. How can I make sure that the attorneys use the priority date from my old I-140? || What are the chances of an H-1B visa (STEM OPT) after completing Masters in the U.S? || H-1B visa holder travels abroad (Canada) for work sometimes; is an H-1B amendment required for change of address or location abroad?
Published by: The Economic Times: September 04, 2022
Question: Can I change my profession after getting a Green Card? I received my GC in EB2 as an Accountant. Now, I see the salaries in the software/IT sector to be much higher.
Answer: Sure, you can change your profession as long as you did not have a pre-conceived intention to do so before you got your green card. I cannot say that there is any particular time frame attached to it.
Number 70
Volume X
Washington, D.C
A. STATUTORY NUMBERS
This bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers during October 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.
Processing Queue | Priority Date |
---|---|
Analyst Review | January 2022 |
Audit Review | November 2021 |
Reconsideration Request to the CO | April 2022 |
Hi, My husband is in USA working under H1B (his visa got expired last year) and I am a Canadian citizen living in Canada. We are Married for 18 years and we have 1son born in USA. We both applied for visa together (h1b for my husband and H4 for me) in Canada. We got visa interview date too but my husband’s company recently filed green card process for him. So, I believe he cannot travel to Canada if green card is under process. Can I go for visa interview by myself even if he is the main applicant and cannot attend visa interview?
Canadian citizens do not need a visa. Presentation of the H-1B approval and proof of relationship at the port of entry with proof of maintenance of H-1B status should be sufficient to gain H-4 status. See this entry also: https://www.immigration.com/faq/h-4-canadian-citizen I am unable to understand the rest of the situation. You are welcome to post a message for our next community conference call. We have one almost every other Thursday.
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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.
Hello Sir, I was on CPT for a year and a half before my H1b visa was approved last year. After that, I took a break from my studies. Now, I want to visit India, do I need to resume my degree? I'm planning to drop it as it is too expensive. Will there be any issue in stamping as it would be my first H1b stamp. Thanks
From a purely legal perspective, there is no law that requires you to continue with your degree if you have received your H1B approval. However, I am concerned about appearances also. Ideally, people should take up a new educational program only if they are serious about it and that program furthers their career. If you quit, you should have a good, truthful explanation for why you started that degree and why you quit. You may never be called upon to explain yourself, but the USCIS and the consulates could potentially ask about any relevant matter when you appear for an interview.
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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.
Hi, My question is can I stay unemployed on EAD for long period of time (working for the same employer who petitioned me but on bench without payroll)? Can I be like that until my 485 gets adjudicated?. or do I need to show paystubs for each and every month?
Technically, you can be unemployed while on EAD/AOS/I-485. But if you are benched by the employer who petitioned for your green card, that casts doubt on the availability of the green card job. That can lead to revocation of the green card process unless you change employers using AC21 portability.
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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.
Hi, My husband is in USA working under H1B (his visa got expired last year) and I am a Canadian citizen living in Canada. We are Married for 18 years and we have 1son born in USA. We both applied for visa together (h1b for my husband and H4 for me) in Canada. We got visa interview date too but my husband’s company recently filed green card process for him. So, I believe he cannot travel to Canada if green card is under process. Can I go for visa interview by myself even if he is the main applicant and cannot attend visa interview?
The same H-4 visa can be used even if H-1B changes employment. As long as the H-1B maintains status, H-1B revocation has no impact on the H-4 visa.
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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.
Release Date
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is implementing the next phase of the premium processing expansion for certain petitioners who have a pending Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under the EB-1 and EB-2 classifications.
I am currently on F-1 Stem OPT, and my H1B got approved this year a few days back. My current company is shutting down its operations and moving everything to Mexico.
1. They have given me the last date of employment as 31st October 2022. So my question is how soon can I change my employer and can I transfer my H1B to a new employer before 1st October 2022?
2. Also, if I can do my visa transfer only after October 1st 2022,?
3. Can I do that with 1 paystub, or will I require 2 paystubs?
1. You are fine because you are going into the fiscal year of the government, which begins on October 1st and that makes you exempt from the H-1B quota forever.
2. You can change your employer even now if your current employer won't revoke before October 1st. If you are nervous about that you can file for a transfer after October 1st.
3. You do not need any particular number of pay stubs.
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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.
Impact of alternate wage survey for H-1B LCA; the success rates of H-1B extensions; AC21 rule when the company is bought by a successor-in-interest
One cannot use any wage survey to convince the government that one’s wage survey is as good as the government's own. I think there are about ten requirements that the wage survey must meet. A few requirements are for example the survey must be conducted by a reliable third party, the survey must not be more than two years old, you should be using the most recent copy of the survey, it must have a significant statistical pool from which the survey was conducted. These are a few requirements.
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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.
I have an Approved I-140 from a previous job. My new employer has initiated the PERM. How can I make sure that the attorneys use the priority date from my old I-140?
Even if your lawyers do nothing to use the old priority date, that priority date is your right. The government itself is supposed to run a data sweep. Check their databases and give you the earliest date you are entitled to. If none of the documents reflect that you've been given the earlier priority date it is still not a problem. Hence there is no other procedure required for you to follow. You do not have to be overly concerned about the attorneys using the old priority date.
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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.
I-140 was approved and then revoked in 2011. Can I keep my priority date and also apply for I-485? What is the deadline for filing I-485?
It depends on a couple of things. First of all the regulations changed in your favor on January 17, 2017. Therefore, if the revocation occurred before January 17, 2017 chances are you might have lost even your priority date. On January 17, 2017 the laws changed and now the rule is if the moment your I-140 is approved the priority date is yours to keep. The second rule is if the I-140 stays approved for 180 days you also have the right to extend your H-1B and your spouse their H-4. There are two different rights - right to keep your priority date the moment I-140 is approved and the right to extend H-1B if the I-140 stays approved for 180 days. Hence this is a protection even if the employer revokes your H-1B.
For more discussion on this matter you can have a look at my older blog entries.
https://www.immigration.com/blogs/
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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.
Release Date
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced publication of a final rule consistent with the vacatur of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Asylumworks et al. v. Mayorkas et al. This final rule is effective starting Feb. 7, 2022.
H-1B visa holder travels abroad (Canada) for work sometimes; is an H-1B amendment required for change of address or location abroad?
The bottom line is there is no law that requires you to have an H-1B if you are working from a country other than the USA. Now if you go to Canada and you are a citizen of India and you do not have any work visa in Canada you will probably need a work visa in Canada. But sitting in Canada you could work for a U.S. company. Also the intermittent H-1B allows you to visit the U.S. for a few days as well as months. This is even allowed under the law. I therefore do not see any problem in working from abroad and coming to the USA intermittently.
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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.
Background:
1) PD - Initial Filing - EB2 MAR 2014 (Two Different EB2 filings with two different employers A and B)
3) Downgraded to EB3 with Employer B (New Petition but using the same EB2 PERM with Employer B) In Nov 2020, Filed I-485 Concurrently
3) Change to a different Full-Time AC21 - Same or Similar Role (Employer C) - Using AOS EAD
4) I-485 Got Approved in E26 Category (EB-2) before any I-485J submission whatsoever.
4) Initiated an inquiry with the Congressman to confirm this card is legitimate for usage and no errors / issues; still waiting on USCIS Response.
5) Spouse's I-485 also Got Approved about 2 weeks AFTER this inquiry was already sent over to USCIS (E27 Category).
Questions:
1) Suppose that a congressman's written response from USCIS comes back affirmative for legitimacy of the approvals quoting USCIS discretionary authority. There is also a recent trend of many such approved cases where the applicant had at least one prior approved EB-2 petition with PD current - so this situation does not seem to be unique any more.
Should we still then pursue USCIS E-Request / I-90 submission avenues from our side - would it really be worth to continue stretching this any further at that point ?
2) You had indicated that until notified otherwise, this LPR card can be used for Travel Purposes. Can it also be used to say take up a second week-end / part time job, renewal of driver's licenses etc. ?
3) If you use this card for any of the above purposes, and unfortunately USCIS response were to be negative, do you lose your status - have to do any reinstatement etc. particularly in the travel situation usage of LPR Card ?
4) Can you continue using your AOS EAD / AP instead during this seemingly weird time window, since that also is a USCIS-issued valid non-expired travel and work authorization ? In general, can you continue its usage until the expiry date, regardless of your I-485 status ?
1. I would suggest that you submit the E-request with an I-90 saying this green card appears to have been approved with an error.
2. My advice would be to avoid it if you can. But if you have to I think you can argue quite successfully that travel was valid and it does not affect your pending green card.
3. I do not think so because you have an EAD/Advance Parole.
4. I think you have a pretty strong argument. You can definitely continue using your EAD, but do not use your Advance Parole if you can.
What are the chances of an H-1B visa (STEM OPT) after completing Masters in the U.S?
One is not sure what the laws are going to be or what the procedures are going to be in another few years. Congress is keenly aware of the perceived shortcomings in the H-1B process. Things might change by that time. It appears to me that having three tries through STEM and having a Master's degree improves your chances.
Please see my blogs and articles for more information.
https://www.immigration.com/blogs
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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.
Hello, I am on h4 visa with approved ead. My husband has a valid h1b and an approved I-140. The situation is my husband doesn't give my H4 documents like ead and approval notice which are required by my employer and university for establishing my valid presence in US. Is there any way I can ask any authoritative body here in US to help me in getting me access to my own documents? I know my husband will be the primary applicant on h4 visa given I am dependent on his h1b visa. But does that give my husband a legal right to withhold my own documents without my permission or approval? I have a 2year old kid and because of his inability to support us I have to study and get a job and his actions are preventing me from doing so.
I think you can try two things. First, ask the USCIS for a copy of all your immigration papers. Go here: https://www.uscis.gov/records/request-records-through-the-freedom-of-in… Second, speak with local lawyers where your husband resides. It may be possible to get the police involved to recover your immigration documents. Those should be considered your personal property.
Release Date
Effective Sept. 26, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is automatically extending the validity of Permanent Resident Cards (also known as Green Cards) to 24 months for lawful permanent residents who file Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card.
The services provided by Mr. Rajiv & Ms. Suman were outstanding and the timely help during emergencies were really professional and courteous.