Employment based Green Card Question????

[snifks]

Hello Gurus,

I am Canadian citizen currently on TN Visa and will on H1-B from October2007, then I will file my (AOS) (I-140/I-485) together for employment based Green Card. My wife is on separate H1-B(issued October 2006) and enters in US in October2006 but she does not have the record for pay stubs.

- I will be adding my wife when filling (I-140/I-1485).

- Is it going to create any problem for us at the time of interview about her job record (Like pay stub/tax e.t.c)?

- What should I do? Should she change her status to H4 or keep on her H1-B?

please advice your valuable input.

Thanks

 

[nelsona]

What are you saying? That she never worked, or does not have paystubs? Paystubs are not important; working is. If she is not working, she should have switched to TD long ago, and H4 when your H1 takes affect.

 

[snifks]

What are you saying? That she never worked, or does not have paystubs? Paystubs are not important; working is. If she is not working, she should have switched to TD long ago, and H4 when your H1 takes affect.

My wife is on separate H1-B(issued October 2006) but she does not have the record for pay stubs. she came to US in October 2006 till now(8 months passed) she didn't get any project. she was willing to work but the employer didn't find project for her.

- I will be adding my wife when filling (I-140/I-1485).
- Is it going to create any problem for us at the time of interview about her job record (Like pay stub/tax e.t.c)?
- What should I do? Should she change her status to H4 or keep on her H1-B?

your guidance will allow me to follow the right path.

Thanks

 

[CanadianKam]

As far as I know, benching on H-1B is illegal. You cannot make the employee sit on a bench without a pay until there is a job for her. For sure, your wife's employer can get in trouble. I am not sure about your wife though. You'd better talk to an imigration lawyer.

This could've been avoided if she used TN because you can claim to be self-employed and when you are self-employed, some times there is no project to work on. But H-1B is very strict

 

[nelsona]

As I suspected, she really has never been on H1 status, and should have gone on TD days after she found out that her H1 was phoney.

She should switch to TD now (form I-539), and H4 in October, before filing I-485. An RFE leater on could expose the fact that she was not in status when her I-485 was filed.

As Kam pointed out there is a distinction between being out of status (which she is) and working illegally (which she is not), so it maky be quite simple to rectify this BEFORE filing AOS.

Then, if she finds another H1 job, she can start immediately, either by porting H1 (filing I-129) or by using EAD.

But right now, she is no more in H1 status than you are.