H-1B & H4 revalidation in USA v/s Canda v/s India...

High5

Registered Users (C)
Hi

I'm currently on H-1b and my wife on H-4 visa. Both visa have expiry date of early of Feb, 2004.

I'm planning to go to india in early December 2003. My company lawyer has applied for H-1B extension and H-4 extension under normal processing category.

My questions are:
1. If I now convert my application to premium processing, are there any chances of getting an RFE requiring reason for converting from normal to premium processing.

2. If I get the I-797 approvals for H-1B for me and H-4 for my wife via premium processing, now delima is where to go for visa stamping. The options are:
2.1 St Louis in USA, by sending passports and approvals by postal mail.
2.2 Stamping in Canada.
2.3 Stamping in India.

Now option 2.1, I guess currently takes 3-4 months. In my case, I don't have the luxury to wait for 3-4 months if I plan to leave for vacation to India by end of December.

Option 2.2, I guess can be done but this requires visa to Canada. Also I have a question, let's say I get visa for Canada and visit Canada for visa stamping in November, and in worst case my visa get's rejected, can i still come back to USA (since my current visa is valid till early Feb 2004) or do I need to go back to India from Canada itself.
Please note that I currently have Green Card applications pending with BCIS and have not received any approvals for I-140 (filed march 2002) or EAD (filed aug 2002). Will there be any problems.

Option 2.3, I will need to visit Mumbai for visa revalidation and I'm not sure if it can be done via drop-off option in Mumbai and how much time does it take. I need to come back by mid January 2004 at work as I do not have long vacation time.


I will appreciate if the forum could provide me their experience / suggestions on getting H-1B & H4 visa stamped in USA or Canada or India.

I will appreciate your responses.

Thanks.
 
If I would be at your place, I will get it done by premium processing. Try my luck from Ottawa, Canada & also plan my trip to India from Toronto, Canada. If get visa then no issues can come back to Toronot & onward travel to US else will apply from India as you have already plans to fly from Canada to India.
With out a new visa you can not travel back to US from Canada if you apply fro a new visa.

The second option is that if your departure dates are flexible then leave for India & come back before Feb, 2004 before your current visa expires.
 
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