L1B TO F1 COS FEASIBILITY WITH SHORT TIME LEFT FOR EXPIRY

USA F1, F2 Visas - CPT - OPT
1

I am currently on L1B with validity until 15-Sep-2020 only. My employer will file an L1B extension but I am looking to enroll to an MS (Masters) degree from the coming summer session from a university who is providing day 1 CPT option. Below are my queries for this COS.

  1. Can I initiate both L1B extension and L1B to F1 COS parallelly, will the approval granted at later date will be only considered?

  2. Does L1B to F1 COS take a good time or it approves immediately as per the college session start date?

  3. Does working on CPT/OPT count in maximum work eligibility of 6 years if I get H1B to let’s say next year? I already have stayed on L1B for almost 3.5 years now.

  4. Are there any complications to move to F1 considering my situation being on L1B and with a very short time left before expiry? My wife is on H1B (However No I140) and I do have an option to continue with current employer how long I can and then later move to H4 and then join college.

Would appreciate if you could provide some guidance/suggestion on my situation. Since my wife is here, so my only target is to be here in the US with her and also trying to just find an option to continue working being here with her.

2

CPT/OPT or Status in F1 will not count against maximum period of stay on L1/H1.

COS is very uncertain, it can take 3 to 12 months of time to get it approved. On Pending F1, you can study and just confirm with college.

Its better to go for F1 stamping before the college starts and L1 expires. I have seen people on L1 or L2 who got approved on F1 but some of them getting rejected too. Try to go to canada for visa interview. Its much of Luck and L1 is again dual intent visa and F1 is completely non-immigrant intent visa.

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