H4 EAD? Can I get one if my husband had I-140 approved by his previous employer.

USA L1, L2 Visa
1

Hello,

Can I get H4 EAD, if my husband had I-140 approved by his previous employer.Now he is moved to new employer and will start GC again. Now, the question is do I get a work permit since the I-140 was cleared initially.

Thanks

2

i140 is called Immigration Petition

H1B is called non-immigration petition.

Both are the Employment based petitions OWNED by the EMPLOYER but not EMPLOYEE.

Having said that, your husband’s approved i140 is being OWNED by his Employer who had filed it, not your husband.

Having said that, once he has left his i140 employer, if you have attempt to use it(you need a copy of the i140 approval notice to apply for your EAD under H4), there is a possibility that the previous employer has revoked i140 or you may need to supply the current/future employment letter from that employer etc…

So, you may try to apply for EAD but most likely you may not be able to get successful.

3

this is what i got from attorney

. Under the regulation as proposed, the priority date of the I-140 did not have to be current. Any I-140 approval would be sufficient, no need for it to be the current employer’s I-140.

  1. With respect to job changes, the proposed regulation allowed two avenues for the H4 EAD. Either the H1 spouse had to have an I-140 approval OR they had to have extended H1 status beyond the six years under AC21. Thus, it seems that, if there is a job change and the H1 spouse is beyond six years of H1 time, that would qualify the H4 for an EAD, even if the old employer requests to revoke the I-140.

  2. Once an EAD is approved, it is valid unless specifically revoked. So, various changes after approval should not disrupt the EAD, but could impact the ability to get an extension.

4

Your attorney points

  1. PD has nothing to do with your original topic.
  2. I didnt go though the actual text of the H4 -EAD ruling. What I have told is what is an eligible i140 to be valid.
  3. Your attorney is wrong. An EAD need not be explicitly revoked. Any of its underlying eligibility criteria becomes void or ineligible, the derived approval(EAD in this case) would become invalid automatically.