Premium processing of H1 Visa and H4 Visa

USA H1B Visa
1

Hi,
My previous H1 B and my wife’s H4 visa expired on Sep 30, 2015. My company applied for my H1 extension in June along with the H4 extension for my wife. This was done under normal processing. In the last week of September my company decided to upgrade my H1B application to Premium processing. I just received my H1B extension approval. I was told by the company that my wife’s H4 Visa is not approved yet. Below are my questions:

  1. I thought that my wife’s H4 extension application was a part of my H1B extension application and when they upgraded mine to Premium processing, it would automatically include my wife’s H4 application for the expedited process.

  2. If the Premium processing upgrade can be done only for my H1 application then my wife’s H4 application would still be in the normal processing queue. Should there be an I797 and an EAC number for the h4 application too?

  3. If yes, how long does it typically take for the H4 extension approval?

  4. And finally, I have an approved I-140 and my wife received her EAD in August which was valid till Sep 30, 2015. Should we hold off on applying for her new EAD until her H4 gets approved?

Thanks for the help.

BVV

2

  1. yes… it should happen like that. In general first h4 would be approved then H1… but some times it depends. i would wait for some time…since your H1 is approved, definitely H4 also would get it approved.

  2. H4 should have the same as yours. because H4 is dependent of H1.

  3. it depends… wait for some more time.

  4. yeah…better wait till that approval and apply…