H4 cos and H4 EAD pending

USA
1

Hi Anil,

I applied for my H4 cos in October. The receipt date was oct 25 2019, Biometric completed on November 22nd. I also applied my H4 EAD but Since my husband’s forgot to send it in one packet. We waited for I539 receipt and once we received it, we applied for I765. The receipt date was November 12, 2019. All my applications went to California service centre.I raised an expired request in February which was denied on March 3rd. I raised another one through ombudsman but I did not receive any response then on March 5th, I raised an expedite request through senator to which I received the following response.

regarding the I-765 application filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
The expedite request was not forwarded for review, since your constituent’s case
is currently pending review with an adjudications officer. Your constituent should receive a notice of action on his case within 30 days. Please contact us again if the timeframe has expired and the constituent has not received a notice of action* from USCIS.
*A notice of action may be in a form of Approval Notice, Denial Notice, Transfer Notice, Request for Evidence, Notice of Intent to Deny or Notice of Intent to Revoke.

I received this on 10th March. My case status had not changed yet. Does this means that they are working on my case? Should I expect to get my EAD soon? What should I do if these 30 days have passed, should I reach out to the senator or to USCIS?

Please let me know if you have come across a similar case. I am really worried now, I have 2 job offers but if this doesn’t work out I will loose both the jobs and with this current situation I don’t know how hard it will be to find another one.

2

This is a generic email that USCIS sends to everyone. 30 days is a standard text in their generic email.

You can only raise a service request if the H4 EAD processing time is outside of normal processing time.

3

Thank you so much for responding Anil. I contacted the senators office and they said that the expedite request pulls out your case from the que and puts it in front of the adjudicating officer and this means you should have the EAD soon as someone is already working in your case. Is that not correct?

4

That happens only when your expedite request has been approved. From the message you have shared, i do not think it has been approved.

5

I also applied H4 COS and EAD in late November. No update yet. I have a great offer in hand but don’t have any option but to wait. I haven’t raised expedite request or contacted congressman yet.

6

I can understand your situation but can’t help. USCIS is doing what they want to do and their own way.

7

I hope they process it soon :(. I will definitely keep you and everyone posted. Actually a friend of mine also sent an expedite request through the same senator’s office and she received the same response. And within 2 weeks she received her EAD as well. I was hoping the same for me.

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8

What was the reason you mentioned for expediting your request? I have offer letter from the employer, but not sure if they will accept it?

9

I submitted a letter from my employer telling them about the financial impact that my organization will suffer in my absence. I also gave them a copy of my i539 and i 765 receipts.

10

There is no harm in trying so I would suggest you should touch base with your senator\congressman and ask for their help

11

Hi Anil,

I received my H4 approval today which is valid until June 2020. I applied for an extention in March for both my H4 and I765 but I did not receive any bio metric appointment due to office closures, do you know any such cases where they have approved I539 without biometrics?

12

No, i have not heard of any case where H4 was approved without biometric.

Yours is probably the first one. Are you sure you never gave biometrics earlier to USCIS in US? Has your i765 been approved?

What status do you see on USCIS status website for your H4?

Can you share a screen shot? I am interested to see if it’s really approved.

13

Hi Anil,

Sorry for the late response. Actually I think there is some miscommunication here. I will first share my timeline for everyone.
I was on F1 visa and applied for a COS and H4 EAD concurrently. The receipt date for both my documents were 25th October 2019 and 12 November 2019 respectively.
Fingerprints taken on 22nd November 2019.
Both applications approved on 1st May 2020 and 6th May 2020 respectively. I received my EAD card on 8th May.

This EAD that I received was based on my husband’s previous H1B and it will expire in a month and a half that is on 25 June 2020.

I applied for an extension based on my husband’s H1B that got approved on 4th March 2020. The receipt dates for both my extensions are COS- 16 March 2020 and EAD - 25th March 2020. I did not get any notice for fingerprinting. I was wondering if I will have to wait for the offices to reopen or if they can approve my I539 and I765 based on my previous fingerprints.
I called USCIS customer care to confirm and they initially said that USCIS has not given any clarity on using previous fingerprint for I539 but when I told them that I have also applied for EAD concurrently they said in that case USCIS will use your last fingerprints. I also contacted the lawyer who filed my I539 and he said the same things.

I am posting it here for anyone who has questions around this topic.

For now I am just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping I get this extension approved in time. It’s very very important for me at this moment.

1 Like
14

Hi @ssharan,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I was on the same boat that I submitted my COS from F1 to H4 + EAD application in March, based on my husband’s previous H1B that will expire in September. On the application document, I put the starting date as of May 2020 (which is my CPT expiry date), and didn’t put any ending date.

In April, once he can extend his H1B for the next 3 years, I applied another COS from F1 to H4 + EAD concurrently with his H1B extension. As at that time, the first I-539 application that I submitted 1 month ago was still pending, that’s why I submitted another “change of status” request instead of an extension request. On the application document, I put the starting date as of September 2020 (in line with my husband’s H1B extension starting date).

Now I saw your experience and really worried that I might submit the wrong application - that I should apply for EOS instead of COS, @Anil.Gupta could you please also share any insight on my situation? Both of the application packages are pending right now with 2 different services center, and I don’t know which one would get approved first.

I’m worry that if the March application gets approve 1st, I would have been changed to H4, and once USCIS dealing with my second application, they would confuse and reject my application- but I do need the EAD card for the next 3 years.

Another worry would be even if the April application gets approve 1st, I still could not work before September because the H4 and EAD starting date are both in September. Such an dilemma!

Do you think I need to file another extension or that would too complicated? Tons of thanks in advance!

15

Hi,

Don’t worry by extension, I mean COS. I am not very good with all these terms, I am sure even you know how confusing they are. But I did the same thing as you and once my first one got approved. I expedited my second COS application through a senator.

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16

Hi thanks for sharing! that’s really great to hear that you also did the same :slight_smile: I was really frustrate given the tricky timing and worry about how confusing my application looks like.

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