H1B revocation and out of status Issue

Hi All,

I am creating this post to share my experience on H1B revocation.

My employer accidentally revoked my H1B when another employee having similar name was resigned from my company. My employer got to know this only when they receive a letter from USCIS for revocation acceptance.

They suddenly applied “nunc pro tunc” application in premium mode for my case mentioning it was a mistake and I received a new receipt number for this case.

I was out-of-status since my h1b was already revoked and we get to know this after 15 days of revocation. Since I got the receipt I stayed in US even if it is illegal. My employer told me that it is a kind of legal since we made a mistake and we notified that to USCIS and waiting for a decision from USCIS.

We knew that sometimes case may be approved but with no i94. That means, I need to travel back to India and get my visa stamped. We waited and in 14th day we got an RFE.

My employer told me that get ready to travel to INDIA in one day since you got an RFE and that might be something bad. They suddenly call after few hours and said there is a hope as RFE is not that bad. USCIS is asking to send paychecks from January to till date, that is around 8 Months and Client letter.

We submitted and in 8 days we got our case APPROVED with I94!!! Definitely this is a GOOD THING!!!

When I received the I797 I realized that USCIS reopen my revoked case and approved it. They send me my old I797 but with a new receipt date. All is well now!

But I am bit afraid that if I go back to India for a vacation and go to do stamping will this 15-20 days of illegal stay causes any issues? was that really an illegal stay? also concerned about green card processing in future?

Thanks for your support.

I have heard about similar case too. Since you have a valid reason(mistake from employer side) for sure it wouldn’t have any impact to your future stampings. So dont worry on this part. Even to the green card also it wont impact. At the bad side, you can’t expect anything. so if some thing goes bad, for sure its gonna affect your employer too.

But at the time of stamping how I can prove this is a mistake from employer?
There is a question regarding any illegal stay US in DS160, do I need to say “Yes”?

You were not out of status. That applies to individuals who overstay their visa class without making a change to status. The answer to the DS-160 question is ‘no’.

Thank you very much for your reply. Appreciate it!

My employer removed me from payroll for those periods and add me back when my revoked visa renewal is approved. They said I am out of status now and they cannot keep me in payroll. I missed 15 days of paycheck. If I was not out of status why they did that? Do you have any thoughts on this?