H1B 7th year grace period till approval?

S

spyross

Registered Users (C)
My 2nd H1B visa expired on March 31st 2001.
In December 2000 or early January of 2000 my
immigration layer applied for this 1 year extension
while I still wait for a Green Card.

How long am I considered legal while I wait
for this 1 year H1-B extension?

In other words if it takes 12 months for INS to respond
am I considered legal here? Or is there a specific grace
period defined? If it takes INS too long, when do I run
out of time?
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I found this message in the discussion forum.

when you file for an extension of status on an H1, as soon as the application is recieved, you get a parole period of 240 days.

What if it take more than 240 days?
(150 days or so and counting)

--------------------------------
New York, Vermont Service Center
 
No Title

Spyross, I am in the similar situation as you are and I am sure a lot more folks are in the same boat. However the parole period of 240 days starts from the day your H1-B visa expires, which in your case would be March 31st. Therefore, uptill now it is about 60 days into that grace period, so you still have a long way to go. I also saw some place in Sheila Murthy\'s chat websites that for the beyond six year H1-B extension, the grace period would not be limited to 240 days. I think this was based on some verbal guidance in liason meetings with the INS. However my lawyer hasn\'t heard anything like that and is still considering the 240 days grace period as the limit and nothing more than that. From what I see in the discussion board, folks from TSC are getting approvals beyond six years, but the other service centers are holding them awaiting regulations or memos from the INS headquaters.

Anyway, hope this helps.
 
No Title

Thank you for you reply Gautam. It is good to hear
from other people in similar situations.

I must say I was intrigued also by the new "premium service"
I read about. I know that it does not apply to H-1Bs yet
but I have serious doubts and concerns if it will solve the
backlog issues at all these service centers.

These deadlines are very important to most people in our situation.
I everybody pays the (extra) $1000 it will not make any difference
in the amount of backlogs. If somebody does not pay I suppose it might
mean that they are going to be backlogged even further?

Unless INS allocates every penny of each of those $1000 fees
to improve infrastructure and hire and train personnel.
But that is not an overnight change either.

Just thoughts.
 
No Title

Regarding the Sheila murthy\'s website that was quoted above, following is the posting at
http://www.murthy.com/chat0205.html
___________________________________________________________________________
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                amurthy : Hi Ms. Murthy. Is it possible for my wife to apply for H4 extension
                in India & me to apply for H1 extension in USA? Will I go out of status if my
                H1 extension is not approved before my current H1 expires?

                SPEAKER_Attorney_Murthy : If you are in the U.S., then there is no
                problem since you are allowed to continue to work for at least up to 240
                days with the same employer if the H1B petition extension is pending with
                the INS. On the other hand, ACTA or AC21 may actually allow the person
                now to work for even longer if the INS has not made any decision within the
                240 days or about 8 months. If your wife is abroad, she will need to show
                your H1B extension approval notice and apply for the H4 visa stamp and
                enter on H4 status from outside the U.S.

                ------------------
 
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