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Re: sfbay: Extension for H1B Visa

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Re: sfbay: Extension for H1B Visa

From: Erik Bruchez <click for textversion of email address >
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 23:53:09 -0800
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.73 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U)

> They swear I had no worry to have because, according to them, as
> long as the process is pending I can stay and work in the US, since
> I already have an H1 status. According to this, it seems that you
> do not really need the notice of approval. I would take it with a
> grain of salt though, since it would not be the first time I see a
> "specialist" of immigration questions know less about it than a
> swiss-lister.

IANAL, but one thing is certain: if you have lawful status in the US
and you file for a change of status or an extension before your
current status expires or less than 10 days after it expires, you keep
that lawful status until the new petition is approved or rejected,
whether this happens before or after the expiration date. This means
that you can stay in the country waiting for the new petition to be
approved. You should not leave the country after the expiration
date and before the new petition has been approved, or you won't be
able to come back until it has been approved.

This is true at least for H-1B, J-1 and B-2 (tourist) visas. The green
card process is a different story.

> About the visa stamp for travel, Davide is correct in pointing out
> that you need one. On the other hand, I do not think it is possible
> to obtain one in the US (I have called repeatedly the INS, the
> american embassy in Bern, and the State Department about this). The
> only way is to travel and obtain one in an embassy or consulate.

This is not quite true. You can send your passport and documents to
the American embassy in Bern and have them shipped back (ask the
embassy for the forms and documents you need to join, such as proof of
payment). You will normally do this when you are in Switzerland to
avoid spending a day in Bern (been there, done that - doing it by mail
will save you that day, but beware that processing will take between 2
days to 2 weeks depending on the load they have, time during which you
won't have your passport), but apparently it also works if you include
an envelope with an US address and enough postage (you should better
insure all this!). This has worked in the past. If you want to do it
the secure way, send the documents to somebody in Switzerland, have
them forward them to the embassy, get the documents back, and send
them back to you in the US.

-Erik
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Received on Wed Dec 13 2000 - 23:52:28 PST

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