already working with a permit but with a tourist visa

A

asuncionmd

Registered Users (C)
my sister left for Arizona march of 2003 on a tourist visa. before her I-94 expired (sept of 2003), she was able to find an employer and she has since worked in the school as a teacher. she tells me she was able to get a working permit, that everything is above board, legal and straight. she even has an SS number and bank account. i guess she means she was able to change her status from tourist to working, but her visa remains a tourist's visa.

she has just renewed her yearly contract with the school and now plans to request the school to sponsor her permanent status/green card. is this possible? will there be any trouble with her papers?

with her present condition, how can she convert her tourist visa to an H1B visa? is that possible after over a year or so of working there?

pls advice... thanks and more power...
 
she is afraid to come back for a visit because the consulate here would most likely deny her an H1B visa for her re-entry and might say that she committed visa fraud last time since she worked when she entered supposedly as visitor. can that really be considered visa fraud??

that is exactly what happened to a friend of mine. she is right now so depressed because the US consulate here denied her re-entry so she is stuck here! is there anything else she could do? she is supposed to go back to the US on the 23rd!

regarding my sister again, assuming that her school finally decides to sponsor her for gpermanent residence, who would process the application and would her having entered as a tourist who later worked be taken against her? does she have a good chance?
 
Thanks so very much, JoeF for all the replies. THanks for being very frank and upront and at the same time being very encouraging. I really appreciate that. Again, thanks. more power to you!
 
oh and can i ask one more thing.... my sister's husband is being petitioned by his dad who was a war veteran.. his dad is already living in the states.

when my sister decided to work there, my brother in law went with her and they are both staying there right now.

i do not know exactly what papers and status he is holding right now, but is my brother in law legally staying there? how will his stay there affect his petition? is it now null and void?
 
let me get the full details of my bro in law's status and petition first and then ill get back to you.

what i know for now, is that he is enrolled in school, even has a scholarship of some sort. with this situation they are in, are they doing anything illegal? what status should my bro in law be in then?
 
have there actually been cases of people who have successfully converted their visitor's visa to permanent residency/GC like my sister's case, that you actually know of and know in fact?

i want to be able to advise her re her decisions so that she wouldnt end up doing illegal things there just to be able to stay... i dont think she wants that either..
 
what if the new I94 of her H1B status is about to expire and GC is still pending?

god willing, if my sister gets lucky enough that her employer does decide in her favor to apply permanent residency for her, what if the approval is pending yet her new I-94 is about to expire? what should she do? what could she do so she wouldnt need to leave the US anymore?
 
when would it then be safest for my sister to have a vacation here in manila? we all miss her so much and would like to see her again.

everything she went thru was legal yet she is afraid she would have problems with her re-entry to the US since she has a tourist visa with a working status.

is she safe to visit manila?
 
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