H4 stamping for Change of citizenship to Canadian

I

indy29

New Member
Hi,

My wife is currently in US on H4 visa valid till sept 30 2023 with Indian passport. Recently she got her Canadian Citizenship & received her Canada Passport. We have to surrender Indian passport soon. So, we must get H4 stamping on Canadian Passport. I heard we can get stamped at any POE or CBP. I have the extension for H1B i797 approval, but I have not yet stamped my passport. We simply want to get her Stamping for now, is it advisable to get stamping at POE/CBP in our scenario? Or we should only get stamping through consular appt. Either in Canada or India.

Also, Should we apply for H4 EAD after getting H4 stamping on Canadian passport & surrender Indian Passport or Can we apply before getting stamped and applying for OCI ?
 
Let's get the terminology straight. What you call "stamping" is getting a visa. A visa is a whole-page printed sticker that says "VISA" on it, and you can only get a US visa at a US consulate. You can never get a visa at a POE. In that sense, there is no such thing as "get stamping at POE". Canadian citizens do not need nonimmigrant visas to the US, so she would not "get stamping" at all, as you call it.

What you get at a POE is get admitted into a status in the US. You will get an I-94, which is electronic these days. And you might get an "entry stamp" in your passport, which is an ink stamp indicating the same information as on your I-94 (i.e. the date of entry, status you were admitted into, and date you were admitted until). This is true no matter if you travel to the POE with a visa, or if you travel to the POE with a Canadian passport (which doesn't need a visa). This is probably not what you mean by "stamping".

H4 EAD can be applied for at any time after being admitted into the US in H4 status.
 
newacct said:
Let's get the terminology straight. What you call "stamping" is getting a visa. A visa is a whole-page printed sticker that says "VISA" on it, and you can only get a US visa at a US consulate. You can never get a visa at a POE. In that sense, there is no such thing as "get stamping at POE". Canadian citizens do not need nonimmigrant visas to the US, so she would not "get stamping" at all, as you call it.

What you get at a POE is get admitted into a status in the US. You will get an I-94, which is electronic these days. And you might get an "entry stamp" in your passport, which is an ink stamp indicating the same information as on your I-94 (i.e. the date of entry, status you were admitted into, and date you were admitted until). This is true no matter if you travel to the POE with a visa, or if you travel to the POE with a Canadian passport (which doesn't need a visa). This is probably not what you mean by "stamping".

H4 EAD can be applied for at any time after being admitted into the US in H4 status.
Click to expand...
So in order to obtain H4 visa, she needs to get visit US Consulate in Canada correct?
 
indy29 said:
So in order to obtain H4 visa, she needs to get visit US Consulate in Canada correct?
Click to expand...
No, she does not need to visit any US consulate, because she does not need to obtain an H4 visa.

Whatever documents that she would need to present at a US consulate to obtain an H4 visa if she were non-Canadian, since she is Canadian, she could present those same documents directly at any US port of entry to be admitted into H4 status directly, without a visa.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top