Change of Status from F2 to H4

I have been on F1 visa working in STEM OPT until November 6th 2019. My H1B was approved on November 19th, 2019. My wife is still on F2 visa and my employer mistakenly didn’t file for her change of status along with my H1B application. Later they said she will now have to go for stamping in India within 179 days of my H1B approval. Accordingly, I have planned for my travel on March 20th, 2020. However it seems the 179 days grace period starts from October 1st 2019 which will end on March 28th, 2020 which I was unaware of. With the recent travel bans on the coronavirus it seems our flight will be canceled and we wont be able to leave the country before March 28th and my wife’s grace period for change of status will also end. I wanted some help to guide me through any alternate solution to this, if any.

Hi prmukherjee, may I know your update? I am at the same boat. H1B got approved min Feb 2020, had plan to leave the country to apply H4 for my family from my home country this mid April, but since the COVID-19 growing condition we decided to cancel the plan and thinking to apply for i-539 instead. I dont know how this will works but surely international travel is not an option for now.

Hi Haris1, I am in the same situation now, my employer forgot to file H4 for my wife, after the approval of my H1b in Oct. 2020, my wife’s F2 is out of status. How is your i-539 now ? got approved ?