Confusion H1 Visa Revalidation

mgupta11

New Member
I am scheduled to appear for an interview in Dec for my H1 Visa Re-validation and plan to travel back to US in early Jan 2006. However, I have a question that I wanted to clarify. Here is my situation:

The H1 visa stamp in my passport expired on March 2005, but I have a I-797 that is valid till March 2006. Additionally, my company got a new I-797 approved from me, which is valid from March 2006 (i.e. from when previous I-797 expired) to March 2008. My question is that when appearing for an interview and when filling up forms, which I-797 should I use? If I use the current I-797 (which is valid till March 2006 only), my new visa will expire in March 2006 and if I use the new approved I-797, that visa will not be valid before March 2006 and I will not be able to travel back to US in Jan. Some one told me that I should use both (current and new approved) I-797, so that my new visa will be valid till March 2008. Is that correct?

I would greatly appreciate anyone’s perspective on this. Thanks a lot.
 
Visa appointment

I think you should put the most recent approval petition#. If you can put both the petition# then thats the best but I doubt it. From my recent experience I can tell that the visa validity will be based on the petition# that you list during the appointment process. So if you put the most recent one you can always show your current approval which will convince the visa consular to issue you visa for the entire period.

Good luck
Su2005
 
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