Dear Friends,
Going through a crisis of my own here and need your opinion/advice. My H1-B visa and I-94 have an expiration date of March 9th. I am planning on going to India to get married on Feb 22nd. I have an extension filed with my employers sister company (premium processing filed Jan 1st week) but haven’t received the approval yet! Here are the different options I would like to discuss with you all:
1. Considering the PIMS delay, I am thinking of avoiding going to the consulate during this visit. In case I get the 797 petition approved before I leave can I reenter US say 2 days before my visa expires? Does any one know anybody who has entered with so little time left on his visa?
2. In case my petition is not approved, can I enter US on my old visa (still with 2 days of validity) and not have any problems at port of entry? I can present the receipt number of the new petition and the print out of the status from INS and try to argue my case with the POE officer. Will filing for an extension of I-94 before I leave the USA help in this case? (My instinct is saying it won’t) Or will it be advisable to wait till I have the approved petition in hands?
I appreciate your time and effort to respond back. Any thoughts or knowledge that you could share about similar situations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch.
Ameet
Going through a crisis of my own here and need your opinion/advice. My H1-B visa and I-94 have an expiration date of March 9th. I am planning on going to India to get married on Feb 22nd. I have an extension filed with my employers sister company (premium processing filed Jan 1st week) but haven’t received the approval yet! Here are the different options I would like to discuss with you all:
1. Considering the PIMS delay, I am thinking of avoiding going to the consulate during this visit. In case I get the 797 petition approved before I leave can I reenter US say 2 days before my visa expires? Does any one know anybody who has entered with so little time left on his visa?
2. In case my petition is not approved, can I enter US on my old visa (still with 2 days of validity) and not have any problems at port of entry? I can present the receipt number of the new petition and the print out of the status from INS and try to argue my case with the POE officer. Will filing for an extension of I-94 before I leave the USA help in this case? (My instinct is saying it won’t) Or will it be advisable to wait till I have the approved petition in hands?
I appreciate your time and effort to respond back. Any thoughts or knowledge that you could share about similar situations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch.
Ameet