Did my lawyer blow it?

[ETA]

My (first) H1B expires in about 8 days (on October 1st). For some inexplicable reason our lawyer is only now getting around to filing for a renewal (even though we started bugging him about this back in April)...

Question #1: At what point will I be able to travel to Canada and back? From what I understand, it would be unwise to do this until I have the new I-94 in hand?

Question #2: Am I correct in saying that as long as the BCIS receives the renewal application this week then I will remain in status?

Question #3: If for some reason, the BCIS doesn't get the renewal application until after 10/01, if I'm out of status for, say, a couple weeks, will this matter in the long run? We're about to apply for I-140 / I-485 and it sounds like I'd be ok as long as I'm t out of status for less than 180 days (although I'd obviously prefer not to go out of status at all...)?

Question #4: My wife and kids are on derivative H4's. I'm assuming that their being in status will parallel my own being in status?

I'll probably pressure my company to ask for premium processing (for an extra $1000) to speed things up to 2-3 weeks from 16 weeks currently at VSC so we can travel during the xmas holidays. I'm really pi**ed that this stuff wasn't taken care of back in April...

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

ETA

 

[jaxen]

Answer 1: It is better to have the new I94 . The only benefit is that you dont need a new stamp in passport to come back into USA if you have a new I94.

2. Yes

3. Well it will be definitely be a thorn. You can reset it by travelling outside US, getting a new H stamp and then coming back before starting 140/485

4. Yes, assuming that their applications are also sent alongwith yours...

 

[ETA]

Hi Jaxen.

Thanks very much for your reply!

We're all set to file the I-140/I-485 this week and it sounds like waiting to reset my status by re-entering the US once the H1B situation is resolved could mean a 16+ week delay (at VSC). It sounds like I better bug our lawyer to Fedex the renewal in ASAP (I'm pushing for premium processing which would mean 2-3 weeks apparently, but I don't know if my company will go for it).

Probably my biggest concern is that something could go wrong with the renewal (?), e.g. a problem with the ad, which could cause us to go out of status for long enough to jeopardize the AOS (I believe that under 245(k) you can have up to 180 aggregate days of being out of status since your last entry to the US). I doubt this is likely (and my ad example might be bogus since I suppose you might stay in status during the re-posting of the ad?) but after taking 3+ years to get to this stage I can't believe our lawyer is taking a chance with this...

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[l8rsk8r]

Did you file H1 renewal in time?

Just curious. I'm in the same boat. Lawyer took their time filing H1 after being reminded repeatedly since April. They fedexed overnight H1 renewal October 1st - (same day as expiration). I'm worried that I'm out of status and it might affect my H1 renewal.

Thanks

 

[ETA]

I *think* we made it -- I hope you did too .

Our renewals went out on Friday (09/26) via FedEx and had to be received by Tuesday (09/30). I'm still waiting to get the receipt notice back from our lawyer a) to make sure things really did get renewed and b) so we have some kind of proof that we can carry with us that shows we are in valid status.

We're also pushing to change the case to premium processing (we were unable to get approval for this from our head office soon enough so we sent the renewals in for regular processing initially) since we are pretty much unable to travel until we get
the new H visas...

This was all so unnecessary -- I'd been bugging our lawyer about sending this stuff in since April and the ad was posted in June and we could have got all this stuff fired off months earlier.

ETA