I am a little confused. I have an F1 Visa and will be marrying my boyfriend in January to start all the paper work. As I understand as soon as I apply for a permanent residency status my student visa is no longer valid. Does this mean that at some point of my life I am going to have to stop working for 1-3 months till I get my work authorization? I mean, if I don't marry my boyfriend in January and find a job and then we decide to get married, do I have to quit my job during the waiting period? In the same way, I've been working 20/week on-campus...if I apply to change my status, does that mean that I can't work on-campus till I get my work authorization either? This just doesn't seem right. As I understand it, we all (F1,H1,etc) have to choose 3 months of our lives when we're just gonna sit an wait. Am I understanding this right?
EAD waiting period
- Thread starter payala
- Start date
No you are not understanding it right. You can work while you are waiting for your work authorization using your work authorization that you have right now until it is valid. When my husband applied for his GC in April, he could work till his H1 was valid and before his H1 expired, he got his work authorization through GC process. He never stop working. So relax... You don't have to sit and wait for 3 months of your life.payala said:
Ok I am confused. 
I posted some questions in an earlier post and ari4u answered them. The one that conflicts with that is:
"- In a job application, when they ask me for my status, what would that be? I am not a PR or an F1 visa holder. What am I?
If you applied for your GC and have your A#, your status would be "Pending AOS". You need EAD to work."
So with this I understood that my status is not an F1 Visa anymore, it is now a "Pending AOS". If I am not under a student visa that would mean that I am no longer allowed to work at all until I obtain an EAD under my "pending AOS" status.
Please correct me if I'm wrong!
I posted some questions in an earlier post and ari4u answered them. The one that conflicts with that is:"- In a job application, when they ask me for my status, what would that be? I am not a PR or an F1 visa holder. What am I?
If you applied for your GC and have your A#, your status would be "Pending AOS". You need EAD to work."
So with this I understood that my status is not an F1 Visa anymore, it is now a "Pending AOS". If I am not under a student visa that would mean that I am no longer allowed to work at all until I obtain an EAD under my "pending AOS" status.
Please correct me if I'm wrong!
Ok so I just called the 1800 number and told her that I already married a USC since they don't like to tell me anything if I tell them that I'm planning to get married. So she said that since I will be adjusting my status I will not be an F1 visa holder anymore, therefore I have to stop working till I get my work authorization. What should I go by?
My thinking is, you can work where you are authorized to work with your current status, that means on campus. But to work anywhere else, you need Work Authorization. So if you want to continue in your current job, that is ok but if you want to apply for new job some where else then you need EAD.
Now I am not a lawyer, whatever I am saying is from people's experiences that I have heard of. But the thing is those 800 people are also not reliable. If you will call them again, probably you will get different answer.
You may want to try visiting your DO and ask the officer there.
Now I am not a lawyer, whatever I am saying is from people's experiences that I have heard of. But the thing is those 800 people are also not reliable. If you will call them again, probably you will get different answer.
You may want to try visiting your DO and ask the officer there.
payala said:
You should not confuse F-1 with H-1 visa.
H1 visas allow dual intent. This means you can be on a non-immigrant H1 visa and apply for immigration at the same time.
F1 visas DO NOT allow dual intent. You cannot be on a non-immigrant visa when you demonstrated immigration intent by filing for your AOS. When you apply for AOS, you lose your F-1 status and come under the Pending AOS status. You would need EAD to work at this point. Since you are not on F-1 anymore, you cannot work at the college campus. You need to wait for your EAD before you can start working for anyone. You would probably get good answers from someone at your college or an immigration lawyer.
That makes sense I guess. I tried talking with the international students director but he did not know anything about this situation. He only knows about H-1 visas and stuff. He doesn't know anything about adjusting status through marriage. I talked with my boss here at school and told him that I might not be working here next semester and he said that we can work something out. That I can keep working and he'll pay for that after I get my work authorization. Nothing wrong with that right?
payala said:
This is my understanding.
Your OPT is based on your F-1.
If you are under the Pending AOS status, you have lost your F-1, this means you cannot apply for OPT. If you need to work, you have to wait for your EAD or you can ask your employer to file H1 for you as that is the safest visa to be on while your GC is being processed. I guess your EAD would get approved earlier than your H1. In either case, you have a little waiting period before you get back to work.
The law does not prohibit you from doing voluntary service where you are not getting paid. If you still want to work without pay, thats your call. Im not sure how IRS is going to look at your retroactive earnings once you legally work with EAD and get paid for the time you worked when you did not have your EAD.