H4EAD Renewal before 180 days

USA
1

Hi,
My H4 EAD expires on 31 Dec 2020. It was through my Spouse’s old employer.
He switched job now and has his approved H1b till 2022 through new employer.

In this scenario, can I apply for H4EAD extension before 180 days of expiry?
Or should I apply for H4 extension now and then wait before 180 days of H4EAD expiry?

And how is visa proccessing center decided?

2

You cannot apply H4 EAD renewal before 180 days of current EAD expiry.

Your best chance was to apply H4 + H4 EAD along with H1B transfer.

The processing center is decided by USCIS. You just send it to the address defined by either H4 extension (form i539) address or H4 EAD address.

3

Thank you for the help Anil. In that case, can I apply for my H4 now to be safer and then apply for EAD in June, assuming H4 would be approved by then.
Also what is the processing time for Vermont for H4 aplication and H4 EAD applications?

4

You can apply H4 first and then H4 EAD.

Check H4 EAD processing time here.

5

Hi Anil,

I have a situation where my Spouse’s H4 and H4 EAD is for longer validity than my H1-B. Here is what happened:

  • With employer-1, my H1-B got approved till Sept-2021
  • My Spouse was in India and got H4 stamped for the same duration, Sept-2021
  • Spouse arrived in USA and we filed her H4 EAD, Received H4 EAD validity till Sept-2021
  • I changed my job to employer-2, I received less validity on H1-B, May-2021
  • Now I want to extend my H1-B, H4 and H4-EAD all at one in Nov-2020.

In this scenario is it possible to extend H4 and H4-EAD before 180 days? Because as per uscis, we can not extend H4-EAD before 180 days of expiry.

Would Appreciate your response on this.

6

Hi @LeoM

Please read discussion above.

7

Hi Anil,

Above discussion doesn’t provide me clear guidence and answer. Specially below confuses me.

Your best chance was to apply H4 + H4 EAD along with H1B transfer.

Can we apply h4+h4 ead even before 180 days of expiry if I file h1-b extension.

Is filing it along with h1-b extension relaxes the criteria of filing h4 +h4 ead 180 days before expiry?

8

Is filing it along with h1-b extension relaxes the criteria of filing h4 +h4 ead 180 days before expiry?

Did you get answer to this question.

I have a similar case, My husband is changing his employer so applying h1 transfer/extension in premium processing and our current visas( h1/h4/h4 EAD) are valid for the next 1.5 years (expiry sep 2022).

His attorneys are asking for $850 for h4 and $850 for EAD extension filing fees and then there are USCIS application fees.
So I was thinking if we apply for h4/h4 EAD extensions on our own.
What are the risks?
with h1 transfer we can apply h4 and h4 ead extension concurrently even if we don’t fall in 180 days window.
I don’t want to take any chance of getting unemployed since we can only apply for EAD extension 180 days before, just wanted to know my options here.

I would really appreciate if you can share your thoughts on my situation.

9

You can file H4 and H4 EAD along with H1B transfer but the final decision rests with USCIS.

Usually, they do extend the H4 EAD but in some low number of cases, people have reported that their EAD applications were returned. BUt, this number is very low.

So, you can go ahead and take your chances as odds are good for an extension without issue.