I have two situation for which I am trying to find an answer. My spouse did not get selected in the lottery -March 2022. Spouse is on F1 Opt and it expires in Feb 2023. Not sure if there will be another h1b lottery in June 2022. Even if it happens we are not sure if it gets selected.
Situation 1:
April 2022 - Apply for F1 to H4 COS + H4 EAD
Wait for 3-14 months to get this processed…
June 2022 - Got selected in 2nd H1b lottery
July 2022 - Employer files for H1b [premium processing] with F1 to H1b COS
Anything needs to be done to stop F1 to H4 COS processing?
Aug 2022 - H1b Approved to start from 1st Oct 2022
Nov 2022 - F1 to H4 COS was reviewed and approved
Dec 2022 - what would be the status now?
Situation 2:
April 2022 - Apply for F1 to H4 COS + H4 EAD
Wait for 3-14 months to get this processed…
June 2022 - Got selected in 2nd H1b lottery
July 2022 - Employer files for H1b [premium processing]. F1 to H1b COS
July 2022 - F1 to H4 COS was reviewed and approved
Aug 2022 - H1b Approved to start from 1st Oct
Dec 2022 - what would be the status now?
In gist , Would application for f1 to h4 approval and f1 to h1b approval can complicate things? Would there be a Situation where spouse needs to go out of the US to go through any consular processing in India to correct the status?
Change of status to H-4 per last action rule.Ideally, USCIS should not approve the F1 to H4 COS as the applicant won’t be in F1 status at the time the F1 to H4 COS is approved and instead send a RFE however many people have experienced this type of issues.
Some people have reported to requesting USCIS to revoke the COS in above situation to reinstate the original status, in your case H1B.
H1B per the last action rule.
She can get back to H1B status by crossing the CBP at Mexico border, showing the H1B I-797 and use AVR. She will need to carry all H1B supporting documents. I don’t think there is need to go for visa stamping however you can consult a lawyer come the situation.
Thanks for the response. In your opinion would you think I should wait until June 2022 lottery to file H4 + H4 EAD to avoid any confusion? Only drawback with waiting until after June is that is the wait time for h4 EAD is 13 months and spouse will loose the job.
Could you let me know in which situation she needs to -"She can get back to H1B status by crossing the CBP at Mexico border, showing the H1B I-797 " . Is it something that may be mandatory to do to work in the US on h1b if we do not have any plans to fly out of the US until all this is sorted out.