I have received RFE on my H1B visa and I have been asked to submit my wife’s recent paystubs and visa status. My wife isn’t working currently. We have moved out of US and both her H1B visa and my H4 visa have expired.
My concern is -
How do I submit her pay stubs when she isn’t working anymore?
Shouldn’t my H1B petition be an independent one since my wife’s H1B has expired. If not, what can I do to make it independent so as to avoid submitting her paystubs? Am I supposed to apply for COS?
Can you provide more information/background about the case. Was H-1 applied w/ COS when you were inside US on H-1? When did you guys leave US? Did she receive payslip until the last day on which she left US?
We applied for the visa while we were in US, my wife being on H1B and I was on H4. We moved out of US around July have been staying out of US since then. Both our visas, her H1B visa and my H4 via expired end of July and we have not applied for any extension, so in effect, we don’t hold any visas now.
My question is - Are the paystubs of my wife really required since she is no longer in US? How should I go about handling the RFE?
You should submit payslips for May, June and July to show that you both were in legal status. You should also mention when you guys left US and maybe submit copy of passports to show immigration stamps.
Looks like USCIS wants clarity on your statuses to approve COS (which is no longer applicable as you guys have already left US).
The other problem I am facing is - My wife is no longer staying with me, so there is no way I would be able to produce her paystubs or her passport.
How do I deal with the RFE now? COS should not be valid in our case since we have both left US and our visas have also expired. So, in effect, it is not a change of status from H4 to H1B but from no visa to H1B.
Shouldn’t mentioning that we already left US and submitting our updated I-94, which would also mention the date of expiry of visas, suffice?
Also, what is the last date of submitting the evidence in RFE? RFE was issued to me on Aug 30.
Ideally my attorney should but my consultant is non-approachable. Neither does she respond properly on mails nor on calls and she isn’t sharing the contact details of the attorney as well.
But for now, I have managed to at least get a copy of my RFE . The RFE says that an alien who is continuing to maintain non-immi status may apply for change of status. An alien on whose behalf a COS has been filed and who travels outside US before the request is adjudicated is considered to have abandoned the request for COS and the petition shall be denied.
When it says petition shall be denied, does it mean that the H1B petition would be denied or COS since I departed US and my H4 visa has also expired. It also says that the spouse also has not maintained H1B status until Aug 24th. We both have left US and our respective visas have also expired.
Will H1B be denied to me since I departed from US and could not maintain the visa status or there can be a way out? Also, my consultant is just not helping me. Instead she is telling that we would not submit any documents and your visa would be denied.
USCIS should just deny the COS and process the petition as consular processing once you leave US. They shouldn’t deny the entire petition. That would be strange and I haven’t seen that in the past. Unfortunately, you are stuck with a bad employer/attorney.
The employer is the petitioner and so its their discretion which attorney to select.
You cannot change employer and avail cap-exempt petition, at least the current petition needs to be approved first.
In other words, you are stuck with this employer and their choice of attorney until the current petition gets approved.
Maybe what you can do is contact an attorney on the side and ask them to prepare the response for you (they will charge you for that but some provide half-hour free consultation). Then share that official response with employer and hope that he accepts it.
You can also post on avvo.com which is an online community for lawyers. Maybe someone will provide you the legal text there.