H4 to H1; H1 approved, but change of status denied; I-824

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vijayc

Registered Users (C)
My wife came to the US in December 2004 on H4. She has a bachelors in engineering from India. We applied for her H1 in August 2005. We did not receive the approval pending a query and due to regular processing until now in February 2006. We now got the H1 approved but the Change of Status was not approved because we went out of the country in December. We went on a cruise to Bahamas for less than 24 hours and didnt realize that we were not supposed to travel outside the US while a petition was in for approval of H1 and Change of Status from H4 to H1.

The approved H1 came with a letter to apply for a visa at Chennai consulate (H4 was originally stamped here) and an approval letter was sent to this consulate. It also says that if we wish to attend a different consulate the petitioner needs to apply I-824 requesting the H1 approval notification be sent to the consulate we wish to attend.

1. We plan to attend for her H1 stamping in Nogales, Mexico (March 6th, 2006) and would appreciate if anyone can share similar experiences.

2. I am currently on a H1 valid until March 2008 from employer B, but my H1 Visa stamp is only valid until Jan 2007 from my employer A, which was approved in Jan 2004. Basically I transferred my H1 to the new company B in March 2005 and received the approval for another 3 years from then. Would anyone of you recommend that I get my H1 stamped until March 2008 because my old H1 stamp is only until Jan 2007 or should I get it done in Chennai? Please share any similar experiences.

3. My wife's employer (petitioner) is sending in the I-824 requesting the notification of H1 approval be sent to Nogales Consulate. Does anyone know how long its going to take for Vermont Center to send the notification to Nogales consulate? How do we know that they are notified?

4. What if they are not notified before our appointment time? Can we take the proof of our I-824 application that we send to Vermont center and apply for her H1 visa?

5. Can we apply for her SSN meanwhile with this approved H1 and no I-94?

6. Finally, any precautions/concerns that we need to take for attending the interview in Mexico?

I appreciate any responses for any of the above questions. Thanks for your help.
 
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vijayc said:
My wife came to the US in December 2004 on H4. She has a bachelors in engineering from India. We applied for her H1 in August 2005. We did not receive the approval pending a query and due to regular processing until now in February 2006. We now got the H1 approved but the Change of Status was not approved because we went out of the country in December. We went on a cruise to Bahamas for less than 24 hours and didnt realize that we were not supposed to travel outside the US while a petition was in for approval of H1 and Change of Status from H4 to H1.

The approved H1 came with a letter to apply for a visa at Chennai consulate (H4 was originally stamped here) and an approval letter was sent to this consulate. It also says that if we wish to attend a different consulate the petitioner needs to apply I-824 requesting the H1 approval notification be sent to the consulate we wish to attend.

1. We plan to attend for her H1 stamping in Nogales, Mexico (March 6th, 2006) and would appreciate if anyone can share similar experiences.

2. I am currently on a H1 valid until March 2008 from employer B, but my H1 Visa stamp is only valid until Jan 2007 from my employer A, which was approved in Jan 2004. Basically I transferred my H1 to the new company B in March 2005 and received the approval for another 3 years from then. Would anyone of you recommend that I get my H1 stamped until March 2008 because my old H1 stamp is only until Jan 2007 or should I get it done in Chennai? Please share any similar experiences.
Not necessary to stamp again before expiry of Comp A visa in your pp.

3. My wife's employer (petitioner) is sending in the I-824 requesting the notification of H1 approval be sent to Nogales Consulate. Does anyone know how long its going to take for Vermont Center to send the notification to Nogales consulate? How do we know that they are notified?
Around 30-90 Days.

4. What if they are not notified before our appointment time? Can we take the proof of our I-824 application that we send to Vermont center and apply for her H1 visa? Unless it is notified, visa may not be stamped in different consulate other than the one which was mentioned in the approval notice..

5. Can we apply for her SSN meanwhile with this approved H1 and no I-94?
With out I 94 also a caveat "H1", SSN is not possible.

6. Finally, any precautions/concerns that we need to take for attending the interview in Mexico?

I appreciate any responses for any of the above questions. Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for your response greatguru. So what would you suggest? Should we go ahead and attend at Nogales, Mexico? or attend at Chennai? or wait till the conulate at Nogales is notified of the approval?

The approved H1 is valid from 2/6/06 to 9/30/3007. We cant afford to wait any longer as we wasted more than 6 months in getting her H1 processed.

If her H1 visa is not approved, will she be able to enter the US on her H4 visa, which is valid until Jan 2007?

Please share any similar experiences. Thanks.
 
vijayc said:
Thanks for your response greatguru. So what would you suggest? Should we go ahead and attend at Nogales, Mexico? or attend at Chennai? or wait till the conulate at Nogales is notified of the approval?
Now you are at Catch 22 situation, if your request for change of consulate is under process, first Chennai consulate will be notified not to entertain you, Nogales may not be intimated yet. You have to wait until you get intimation about Nogales. Ask your attorney to follow it up.
The approved H1 is valid from 2/6/06 to 9/30/3007. We cant afford to wait any longer as we wasted more than 6 months in getting her H1 processed.

If her H1 visa is not approved, will she be able to enter the US on her H4 visa, which is valid until Jan 2007? YES

Please share any similar experiences. Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Hi,
Anyone going to Nogales for h1 stamping on mar 6, please contact me
[I] jothiip@yahoo.com[/I]
as I am going there on March 6.
I have a few concerns and would also help if there is someone I can coordinate with .
The new rules require individuals to stay upto 2 days and would appreciate collaborating with someone who is attending the nogales consl the same date.

Thx,
 
Hi Jyothi
Can you please post your experiences at Nogales. I have an appointment on march 20th there.

Also did u take any mexican visa. If not, did u face any problems because of this.

I am planning to take assistance from a mexican service agent. But he is too expensive and I donno how far I can trust him.
Thanks.
 
Stamping In Nogales H4-H1 Successful

We applied for H1 stamping on March 6th. This is how we went about on the day.

We flew to Tucson (we had friends there), stayed over night and drove early morning (1 hour drive from Tucson) to reach the border by 6AM. We parked at McDonalds close to the border, there are other parking lots too - they all charge $4 for the whole day. Then we crossed the border by walk into Mexico, literally there is no one to ask you about any permit or visa, so do not worry and just walk into Mexico following the signs. As soon as you walk into Mexico, you will see cab drivers all over asking if you wanted a cab. Just say American Consulate (or 'Americano Consulaado' if you want to be more clear :)). They say $8, you bargain for $5, we got him to $6 for 4 of us. He will drop you in front of the consulate. If you havent taken the Bank Draft, you will have to wait till the bank opens (Banamex opens at 9AM). Ask the cab driver to show you the bank, its pretty close by and you can walk from the consulate. You will see Burger King, McDonalds & KFC all in a row very close to the bank.

We spent time at Burger King till the bank opened at 9AM. Note that we had an appointment at 9AM and it is no problem even if you are late by an hour. We checked with the person at the consulate and he said as long as you be there before 10:30 they are cool and they really dont care if you have an appointment earlier. So dont freak out if you dont have a bank draft until you reach Mexico. Dont pay ridiculous amounts of money to some agent, you can do it all by yourself. And there is every possibility you will meet someone like you at the consulate who you can tag along with, to have some company.

We reached the consulate by 10AM and they check all your forms outside before you enter the consulate (just like in Chennai). You will need to fill in DS-156, DS-157 & and DS-158 too. None of the persons there had filled DS-158, so if you can complete DS-158 form before hand, do it. If not you can always do it there. Once inside, you will go thru security chcek and then you are given a number. You will have to wait until your number is called and then you interview with the officer. It was all cool for me, just a few questions about the company, my title and offer letter. Thats it. And then you pay the $50 fee for your visa. You will be told to collect your passport at 3PM. So you can either wait around the consulate or go shop around. We went back to the border to shop, there are lots of shops which sell mexican stuff, bargain like crazy, like you do in India and eat some good authentic Mexican food, my fav was Chicken Fajita!

When you collect your passport, BEFORE you leave consulate, check all your details on the visa. We had 3 people who had something wrong on their visas. One person had his Date of Birth wrong (poor man, he had to stay back, with his 3 month old baby and wife), another one had his nationality wrong, and the other one applied for H4 and he got H1!! So, make sure and check everything and one more thing, DOUBLE CHECK!

Once you collect your passport you will come to the border and walk into the building to go through immigration, customs and border protection. This might take 2 to 4 hours depending on the number of people and how fast the lazy ass staff do their work. DOUBLE CHECK everything at this point too, when you are issued your I-94. Walk back into US to pick up your car and drive home happy!

Good Luck & Gracias!
 
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going Nogales Jan 29

hi,
I have question couple of question :
1) My wife H1 approval came without I 94( she was out of the country ).
2)can you tell what are doucuments did you took with you ?
3)does she has to take previous experience letters from india couple years ago ?

Thanks,
 
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