Am I in violation of rules ? please help.

[frustrated_2001]

1. I came to the US on April 4th 2001.
2. Got my first assignment on Oct 6th 2001.Thats when the company put me on Payroll but I had Insurance from April 69th 2001.
3. Company took a letter from me then saying that I was on unpaid vacation from April 4th 2001 till July 31st 2001 and then from August 1st 2001 till Oct 5th 2001.
4. I have already applied for my I-485 and got my FP.
5. Been to India in April 2003 for 3 weeks. Got into the country without any issues.
6. Got my H1-B stamped from DOS in washington in May 2004 . I am with the same company since the time I have come to the US.
7. In my bio-graphic form G-325A I mentioned that I was working with the company since April 2001.
8. Never been out of job since Oct 2001. Have perfect W2s and all my pay stubs.

Do you guys forsee any issues or problems.

United Nations, Ginnu and other Gurus can you please guide me.

I am really really tensed since I have applied for I-485.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TheRealCanadian]

Got my first assignment on Oct 6th 2001.Thats when the company put me on Payroll but I had Insurance from April 69th 2001.

Pretty funky. You were out of status for exactly six months. If I was a suspicious individual, I'd be suspicious of this. But you shouldn't worry too much.

Never been out of job since Oct 2001. Have perfect W2s and all my pay stubs.

Good.

OK, here's the scoop. You were not in valid status until October 2001, since you weren't working or getting paid. This "six month unpaid vacation" nonsense is exactly why USCIS/DOL have been cracking down on H-1Bs. However, since you never overstayed an I-94, you accumulated no illegal presence, and it's unlikely USCIS will sniff around back to 2001.

USCIS usually tries to detect such situations by requesting W-2s from a given year. However, they usually only ask for the past three years, which in your case should be 2002, 2003 and 2004. Those should all be clean, so if I was in your shoes, I'd volunteer absolutely nothing about 2001 to USCIS, unless they specifically ask for it. Even if they do, 245k might cover you.

When was your I-485 filed? What is your priority date?

 

[atlantabhopali]

Agree with canadian. You should not worry too much or do anything proactively. U should be in good shape. Worst case (rare possibility) - if they ask for ALL w2s and paystubs, and figure out you were not working for 6 months, you would be covered under 245.

goodluck!

- ab