Pinak Lonkar
New Member
Hi,
1) I spent 2 months in a summer camp (CCUSA) in 2005 on a 3-month duration J1 VISA stamped "2 year rule does not apply". The related DS-2019 endorsement has no boxes checked.
2) I left USA and lived in Russia (home country) for 14 months after J1. I did not over-stay my J1 VISA.
3) I returned to USA on F1 VISA in 2007 and did my masters and then obtained a Ph.D.
4) I am now on a full time teaching job starting Fall 2015 on OPT.
5) The school's lawyer is about to file my H1B "change of status" petition. But they are saying that the J-1 VISA stamp annotation is wrong(!) and the 2 year home residency rule still applies(!). They are still going to file using premium, but they firmly believe that the 2 year rule applies. I am absolutely puzzled by this.
My question is - what is prompting the lawyer to make such a statement when the VISA stamp clearly says otherwise? Also, there was no FULLBRIGHT or FLEX involved in my J1. It was simply a summer camp where I worked in the kitchen. I paid for the program. If USCIS can just mark these stamps and VISAs wrong, and we should not trust USCIS, then exactly what do we trust??
Unless absolutely required, I do not want to go through the advisory opinion / waiver as I only have time until August 2016 when my OPT runs out. I read somewhere that in such situation, USCIS will still grant the change-of-status to H1B as long as I remain in USA and for stamping purposes, there may be an issue.
Any suggestions would be very welcome. It is very worrisome.
1) I spent 2 months in a summer camp (CCUSA) in 2005 on a 3-month duration J1 VISA stamped "2 year rule does not apply". The related DS-2019 endorsement has no boxes checked.
2) I left USA and lived in Russia (home country) for 14 months after J1. I did not over-stay my J1 VISA.
3) I returned to USA on F1 VISA in 2007 and did my masters and then obtained a Ph.D.
4) I am now on a full time teaching job starting Fall 2015 on OPT.
5) The school's lawyer is about to file my H1B "change of status" petition. But they are saying that the J-1 VISA stamp annotation is wrong(!) and the 2 year home residency rule still applies(!). They are still going to file using premium, but they firmly believe that the 2 year rule applies. I am absolutely puzzled by this.
My question is - what is prompting the lawyer to make such a statement when the VISA stamp clearly says otherwise? Also, there was no FULLBRIGHT or FLEX involved in my J1. It was simply a summer camp where I worked in the kitchen. I paid for the program. If USCIS can just mark these stamps and VISAs wrong, and we should not trust USCIS, then exactly what do we trust??
Unless absolutely required, I do not want to go through the advisory opinion / waiver as I only have time until August 2016 when my OPT runs out. I read somewhere that in such situation, USCIS will still grant the change-of-status to H1B as long as I remain in USA and for stamping purposes, there may be an issue.
Any suggestions would be very welcome. It is very worrisome.