Filing I-131 Under H1-b Status

R

Rob Hatfield

New Member
Hi All,
I am putting together my marriage based petition (I-130, I-485, I-693, I-864 etc) and wondering whether to file an I-131.
I have to travel for work outside the US for 2 months in Oct-Nov 2016. I am under valid H1-B status until 2018. I understand having valid H1-B status will not automatically cause my petition to be abandoned when I leave the country but would you recommend that I file for a travel document anyway? Does the length of the trip matter (2 months)?

Would it be detrimental to file an I-131, if nothing else to let USCIS aware of my lengthy travel plans outside the US or would they prefer me to travel under the active H1-B status that I have.

Many thanks in advance.
RH
 
It is free, so there is no reason not to. There are no downsides. You do not have to let USCIS aware of anything; you can put "unknown" for date of intended departure and length of trip.
 
Thanks so much, I was wondering in part because my employer "strongly recommends all travel and re-entry in the US be done in H status". At point of entry is the travel document redundant as I have active H1-B status and I present that at POE?
 
When you enter, you can choose to use either your H1b visa or Advance Parole if you have both. Using H1b visa is probably better because it will put you into H1b status, whereas using AP will put you into Parolee status. In the unlikely case that your AOS is denied, your parole will also be revoked.

Having AP is sometimes useful for H1b people nevertheless, for example, if your H1b visa is expired and it is a big hassle to renew it or the renewal gets stuck in Administrative Processing for a long time or something, you can still use AP to re-enter the US.
 
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