L1 to H1, visa and I-94 expired, extension in process

USA H1B Visa
1

Hi All,

My wife’s L2, mine L1-B and our I-94 are expired in Feb 28, 2013 and my company “A” has filed for L1-B extension and L2 (I-539) way back in end of Dec. 2012 but L1-B extension went to RFE and my company “A” responded to RFE in May 18, 2013. Now I am waiting for extension result. My 240 days clock ends in mid of Oct. 2013.



Mean while I filed for H1-B in April 2013 from company “B” and I have received approval of it.



I have some question regarding my L1 to H1 like,



1)      I don’t receive any update of my L1-B extension till 3rd week of Sep. 2013 so can I transfer to H1 in last week of Sep. 2013?



2)      What is the process of move to H1 from L1 without going outside US?



3)      Company “B” has not filed H4 for my wife so if they change L1 to H1 then what happened to my wife's status. They have told me that they will change her status later. 



4)      If I receive approval of L1 before start of Oct. 2013 then what is the process of L1 to H1.



Please clarify my doubts. I appreciate your help in this regards.



Thanks for your time.



-HJ
2

Has your H-1 been approved w/ COS or w/o COS i.e. does the approval copy has an I-94 attached to the bottom of it?

3

Hi Saurabh,

Thanks for your reply, I got an approval w/o COS. I can see my H1 receipt # was approved last week.

Thanks,
HJ

4

You need to be careful here as your I-94 has already expired.

Any new cap-exempt petitions (aka H-1 transfer) can be filed but they will be processed w/ consular processing. So you cannot move to H-1 status until COS gets approved which in turn relies on L-1 extension to be approved. So a better option is to leave US as per the 240 day rule and return on stamped H-1 visa through one of the H-1 employers.

  1. This can be applied but you will have to leave US as per your 240 day schedule.
  2. It needs valid I-94, which you don’t have
  3. As your H-1 was approved w/o COS, this question becomes irrelevant. Your status remains L-1 and so she is correctly on L-2. When your COS is filed to H-1 (based on approved I-94), her COS to H-4 can be applied.
  4. File COS from L-1 to H-1, and her COS from L-2 to H-4.
5

Hi Saurabh,

Thanks for lot for your reply, I appreciate time you spent on my query.

I understand your point, will keep your suggestion in mind. I will wait till L1 result comes in. My employer told me to wait for another month and if result don’t come in by that time then they will push it to PP to get result soon.

Thanks,
HJ