British Expatriate Network

Has anyone here got any experience of applying for Permanent Residency from an H1-B visa?

My company has been excellent in providing me with an immigration lawyer to conduct my GC application for me. He estimates that with the current delays it may be over 4 years from application until my family and I receive Permanent Resident status. However my initial H1-B will expire in only 2 more years, so I guess I'll have to file for an extension at least once.

Also, can anyone tell me about what stages one goes through in the PR application?

Finally, does anyone know if there is an intermediate stage (as someone mentioned to me) where my wife (on an H4 visa) will be able to start work before we have our final Permanent Resident status?

Cheers,

Daniel

I know pretty much bollock-all about this, but...

Isn't it the case that once you have filed for adjustment of status from your non-immigrant visa and you have a receipt thingy, you are OK to stay as long as it takes for your case to be decided as your AOS status overrides your visa? And then you also need advanced parole to leave and re-enter the country, even if the old visa is still valid?

Our L1/L2s expired a few months back, but we were advised that it was easier just to get EADs and Advance Parole documents on the basis of our AOS filing rather than apply for extensions on the visas.

Hope this makes sense -I've had a couple! D

I'm sure it makes perfect sense... to an immigration lawyer :)

I've never heard of any of those acronyms outside of the expat boards, so I'll look them up and try to understand what you've told me - I think it's just the kind of thing I should be discussing with my lawyer :)

Thanks Monster!

We've just got our Advance Parole which does take precidence over our newly aquired Visa extensions, so if we want to visit family back in UK (which is the sole reason for our AP's) we need to contact the attourney 2 months prior to our journey for them to OK this with the INS!

As far as I know HIB Visa holder's spouses cannot work legally until you attain green card status.

I've had a few too so hope this makes sense!

Debs x )

With an H visa you have to go through the work searches first to see if there is anyone else in the US that can do you job, then once that comes back OK (hopefully) and they grant you permission to carry on with your GC, then you apply for AOS and AP etc. So if your work search takes longer than 2 years you will probably need new visas. If you have a good lawyer who knows the system, they should be able to tell you if this will happen or not.

Like Monster and Debs, I don't know much about H visas at all or about the system and how it works, but we are at the same stages (just about) as the other two and awaiting our AP for travel purposes. Once we have that we no longer have to apply for visa extensions (ours runs out Jan 2005).

As far as the wife working - for an H visa I understand you pretty much have to wait for your greencard. Maybe your EADs will come through about 6 months before your greencard. Again, this is something your lawyer should know.

If I was you, I would make a note of all your questions and next time you need to speak to your lawyer, make sure you ask him all your questions then. this way you get the answers you need from the person who is dealing with it for you. ) this is what we do )

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Firstly, this is Jim, not Lisa.

We are on H visas so here's the score.

While you have a labor certification application pending you are able to (and have to) renew your H visa in one year increments until your labor certification comes through.

Once you have labor certification you can apply for adjustment of status (AOS) to permanent resident, and once you have your receipt for the application you can stay without renewing your visa until your application is approved / rejected. If you want to leave the US during this time you have to get advance parole.

We've been here 3 years on an H1-B
I"ve just had it renewed for another 3 years.(so thats up to the end of 2006)
Labour certification is very slow at the moment in Denver (and other parts of the country)
In fact I've just heard from our lawyers that the Dept of Labour are contracting some administration out to private companies, to help get rid of the backlog. Mine was submitted to them in march 2002.
The way I understood it there were originally 3 stages for changing from H1-B to greencard.
1) Labour certification
2)medical checks, backgroud checks etc
3) Adjustment of status through Nebraska or visiting US embassy for interview.
I think now the second two stages can run at the same time.
If your H1-B runs out before the AOS stage you can increase your H1-B in yearly increments.
Hope I don't have to take it that far but who knows at the moment

EAD = employment authorization document (or something like that)
AOS = adjustment of status, a thingumajig that recognises your status has changed from non-immigrant to immigrant, I think
L1/L2 = our types of visa (intra-company transfer)

:-? Our immigration lawyer says we can come and go as we please now we have out advanced parole documents. It only took a couple of months to get them in the first place. Was she wrong?

Our EADs came back pretty quickly -we applied last summer about 5 months before our visas expired, but it still looks like another year before we will get our greencards. Does it matter that the old visa was an H4 visa by the time you have reached adjustment of status?

Whose EADs came through - yours or the kids or just you and then Beast?

With L visas, so we have been told anyway, mine will come through first but that is because i am entitled to one anyway. Phil will gets his through in approx 6 months. We don't know about the children. We haven't actually applied for theirs yet.

As I understand it with H visas, the wife will have to wait as long as the husband, if not longer, but I could be wrong. It is a long time since we looked into the H visas because that is was Phil came over on in the first place and I was on an H4. I understood it would have been at least 5 years before I would get a work permit but that might be different now.

Didn't apply for them for the children.

Come to think of it, this may be because they were not entitled to work on their L2s.... -?

Cut the crap, I know that's you, Stew, so I can't trust a word you say!

Email me :)

Daniel J

It's a fair cop guvnor D
I'll have to watch what I say now.

On a H1B visa the spouse can't work, however if you can afford it they may attend college. Once the green card is applied for the visa is usually routinely extended until they decide whether or not you can have the green card. Mind you need to keep your sponsor, ie , employer. Changing this can put another two years on the process, even if your immediate boss changes it alters things. Took us 7 years instead of the usual 4/5, due to change of dept and stuff.
Just off to renew green card. Have packed sandwiches and a flask, see you guys in a few days. San Jose INS here i come.