H4 Visa and H4 EAD

USA L1, L2 Visa
1

Hi Saurabh,

I wanted to transfer my kids H4 Visa to my employer from my spouse’s employer. In the meantime, we are also planning to travel to India during June 2016, my employer said that it’s not advisable to apply for H1 B transfer and they advised me to finish the travel and come back and apply for their H4 transfer. My spouse in the meantime may change his H1B visa to H4-EAD. His current H1B is valid till 12/1/2016 which is the same as my kids validity (H4 Visa).

  1. Can we continue with the India travel plan this June with my kids H4 visa on my spouse’s H1 Visa?

  2. Which month is the best and right time to start H4 COS + EAD for my spouse as his validity is getting over 12/1/2016? He has visa stamping from his existing employer in his PP. Please advice. Thanks in advance!

2

  1. One option is to go for H-4 visa stamping for them through dropbox and submit your own petition as reference. Irrespective of whether they go for new H-4 visa stamp or not, when entering US they can submit H-4 visa and your H-1 copy to ask H-4 be annotated through you and not your spouse. Once this is done, their I-94 will be based on your 797 and will not require any further action.

  2. H-4 COS could take 2-3 months to process. You can look-up processing time of I-539 on USCIS site. Once your kids enter US on your H-1 petition in June, your spouse can apply for H-4 COS + EAD. This should get approved well before H-1 expiration date and he can then continue to work on EAD.

3

Hi Saurabh,
Thanks for responding promptly.

In (1.) I have a quick question. So, when booking the H4 Visa interview dates for my kids online, can I include my I-797 to annotate the I-94 validity for my kids as I will also need to get my H1B visa stamping during the India visit, I can get for my kids too? Will this be OK?