Hello,
My company want to file PERM for me and starting the process, my current STEM OPT ends in June, my worries now is that will I need to enroll in school again to ensure I’m in status or the 12 month period should be enough for the filing without having to go back to school. “I don’t fall in the china and India category which I think are affected by backlog”.
Kindly advise, thank you.
Employment based green card is a complex process and even if you are not born in India or China, it make take few years to get one.
If your employer haven’t filed H1B yet, then you have few options:
Leave the country after your STEM OPT expires and wait in your home country till your GC is approved via consular processing. Most F1 switch to H1B and then adjust the status to green card.
Back to college on F1 and once PERM is approved and your priority date is current, file for I-140 & I-485/EAD/AP all concurrently. Hopefully you can do adjustment of status while you are still in the college.
Before your OPT expires, file F1 to B2 change of status, if approved, you can only stay in the US for 6 months more months after your OPT expires. Provided your PERM is approved before the B2 expiry and you are able to file I-140 & I-485 (adjustment of status), you can keep living in the US.
I strongly recommend you talk to your employer’s immigration lawyers on your options.
Oh wow, this is really helpful.
The H1B was filed but I was not selected.
Thank you for the detailed information.