My visa is expiring in few weeks and came to visit my father on emergency purpose as he got admitted to hospital and my employer informed me that if am going to come to US after the visa expiry then it NOT possible from their end to apply for the H1B visa extension as me and my family both need to be in India.
My family is in U.S. and has booked the tickets to come to India in the November 2016 and also have a baby of just few months now so they can’t come to India by this August 2016.
Please let me know what is the actual process to follow for this situation. Hope that my company is guiding me correctly. I need to be in India as long as September 2nd week for safer side and by then my father should be on his health recovery. In short, it is not possible to do Visa extension(Ofcourse visa stamping) by staying in India and my wife in United States?
Your H-1 extension can be applied irrespective of whether you are in US or outside US. When you are inside US, you get extension of status as well. However, when you are outside US, its processed for consular processing, and you will have to get visa stamped in order to return to US.
So the employer needs to file a cap-exempt petition w/ consular processing option. If he is talking about extension petition in literal sense, then he may be correct as extension petition would involve extension of status while you are inside US.
Now for your wife. That would be a tricky situation. She cannot apply for H-4 extension until your H-1 petition has been approved and you have entered US.
When is your H-1 petition expiring? And when do you plan to return to US?
My Visa is expiring on August 31 2016. In just few weeks. Am in India right now. My wife is in US. What time and date i should be in US before 31 August? Can it be as late as August 27?
27th is Friday. So if you enter on Friday, will your employer be able to submit extension petition for you within next couple of days, such that it reaches USCIS by Aug 31?
Do they have LCA already certified as it would take 1-2 weeks by itself?
Hi Saurabh,
I have LCA ready and it is till August 2017.
Regards
Tamim Syed
If the employer agrees with the timeline then go ahead with this travel plan.
If asked at POE about the petition end date, let them know that employer plans to file it soon and weren’t able to do it earlier due to family emergency.
If possible, have a manager or contact person available on call when you enter US, in case the officer wants to enquire.
Also, I assume they would file the extension for both you and wife before 31st.