I-94 Question

[origin72]

Hi,

Myself and my wife came to US in 2001 on H-1 and H-4 respectively and our I-94 is stamped valid till Oct 2003.

My wife changed her status to H-1 and I changed my employee too, so we both have new approval notice and new I-94s. But since we have never traveled out of the US since we came, we dont have the new stamp on our passport. The new I-94 does not have any date on it.

Does our passports need to be stamped before Oct 2003 or what are our options? Do we go out of status if we dont stamp it before Oct 2003?

Thanks!

 

[hyd2002]

Re: I-94

First of all the new I-94 will have a enda date on it, please check that, An approval notice will *NOT* have an I-94 *WITHOUT* date

Your passports need to be stamped only if you intend to travel out of US, otherwise you are OK. If you travel out on US before Oct 2003, you can still enter with the old Visa stamp. However, if your wife travels out of US and wants to retain her H1 status she will ahve to get her H1 Visa stamped in the passport.

You have the option of getting your visa revalidated within the US, but your wife must travel out of US to get her H1 visa stamped.

 

[tt tt]

agree with hyd2002

if you stay in the USA you are ok until the end of your latest H1 approval notice's I-94.
if you decide to travel, your wife will need to get stamping done...I would recommend that you get stamping done as well. ( if you travel and return back before oct 2003 and use your old visa which is perfectlyok to do so...some INS officers will not give you an I-94 corresponding to the latest H1 approval notice but only upto the visa limit..try arguing with them on this at the point of entry in these times...and then you suddenly get out of status since your latest I-94 is valid until oct 2003 ..so avoid all these problems...get a new updated visa when you travel )