I entered US in H4 and my H1B is approved , Can I work without stamping

USA H1B Visa
1

Hi Saurabh,

I entered US in H4 on Oct11th and my H1B from Indian company is approved on Oct 11th 2012.

  1. Can I work in US without stamping if my Indian company applies for Change-of-Status ?

OR

  1. Can I do H1B transfer using receipt no(not sure my company will give I-797) to different company and then apply for COS?

Please let me know.

2

  1. Yes you can work after change of status approval

  2. Yes receipt number is enough for getting the transfer

3

Hi swetharunner, what happened to your case? did you get the change of status approved? Please update as im thinking of doing the same thing.

Hi Saurabh, got a question for you as follows, please help me if its feasible:
Currently, I and my family lived in India. My wife is working for a software firm and is expected to travel to US in May or June on H-1 visa.

  1. My wife had an H1 through her former employer with whom she worked in US for almost a year and half and came back to India. Her currently employer is willing to transfer the H1 and the process will start in April. After the transfer, we would be going for the stamping in India (My wife for H1 and I for H4). We would be travelling to USA (my wife on H1 and i on H4) in May last week or June first week on a project.

  2. I would be applying for a fresh H1 visa through an employer in US in this April.

  3. I will be planning to travel to US with my wife, after my H-4 visa gets stamped, in May last week or June first week (while my H-1 application process pending in US). The reason I’m applying H-1 for myself in April, while in India, is because I’m not sure if the quota will be filled up or not by the time I reach US on H-4. So, I don’t want to miss out on H-1 application so applying from India in April itself. Will there be an issue for my H-4 stamping since my H-1 application is in the process?

  4. After reaching US on H-4 visa, if my H-1 application gets approved (lets say in Sep-Oct), will i or my employer be able to apply for change of status (from H-4 to H1) and get a new I-94 card in US and I can start working or do I have to come back to India for H-1 visa stamping and travel back to US?

Please let me know. Help much appreciated, thanks!

4

They can apply for COS from H-4 to H-1. Once approved, you can start working on H-1 from COS approval date. If COS is not applied or gets denied, then stamping is the other option.