I am working with a popular MNC, initially got posted to Location A from India with H1B petition validity till June 30, 2019. Later, I applied and got an amendment approved to work from Location B, with petition validity till June 30, 2018. I was unaware of the reduced time in the second petition and continued to work from Location B even after expiry.
After 7 months in January 2019, I got to know the issue and my employer and attorney advised to travel & work from Location A as that petition is still valid and they have raised the extension on top of it.
Note: On March 2018, We crossed the border and went to Mexico for a vacation. While returning, the Immigration team has not lodged our port of entry. I was not able to see my arrival date in i94 history. So I went to DHS in July 2018(without knowing that my current petition got expired) and explained my case. They provided me a new i94 with the latest port of entry date. In that i94, I got expiry date as June 30, 2019 (As per my old Visa status).
We even went on vacation last October and came back to states November without issues. In this case, also we got a new i94 till June 30, 2019.
Now here are my questions:
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The attorney with my employer has confirmed that my first petition from Plano is still valid and applied extension(normal processing) on top of it. However, can you please let me know if the first petition is still valid? And what are the odds of my extension gets approved? This thought is causing unnecessary tension for me and my pregnant wife.
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My visa is valid till June 30, 2019 and my wife is due on July 20, 2019. She can travel up to may mid. We don’t have parents support in India. So I need to be with her at the time of delivery(whether in the US or India). At this moment, which is the better option for me?
a) Go with premium(as it will be resumed from tomorrow)
b) As processing times will increase from here on, leave it as regular processing, work here in the 240day period and then decide based on the result.
Please help. TIA