INS error on 7th year extension. Extremely urgent. please help!!!!

Rajib Choudhuri

Registered Users (C)
I am planning to leave US for good on 4th October. My company applied for H1 extension for 7th year on the ground that I had my I-140 approval and 365 days passed since labor approval.

The H1 approval notice came for only 2 months (Feb 13th 2001 to April 13th 2001). Point to notice here is that my 6 years of stay on H1 expired on 13th April, 2001. The I-94 issued also expired on 13th April. My company sent all papers again on May 2nd for reconsideration of the date and for a new approval notice till Feb 13th 2002.

No answer from INS yet. Its almost three months. Meanwhile, I am still working here in client site.

My questions are..
1. Am I out of status ?
2. If not, is it legally OK for me to work and earn money till 4th October?
3. Is this I-94 with April 13th date will be enough to leave US on October 4th?
4. I did not plan on filing I-485 or doing GC as I am returning to India permanently. Is it advisable to file it now as a cover? Shall I be able leave the country on 4th October if I file I-485 now?

Any feedback will be highly appreciated.

Regards.
 
No Title

If you are leaving never to come I don\'t think anything matters. It may be a problem if you want to decide to come back in an year, but I think if you decide to come back a couple of years later, I don\'t see any problems. To my knowledge when you leave you surrender your I-94 and I don\'t think anybody really cares about the date on the I-94. (May want to contact a lawyer)
 
Thank you

Thank you Raj for the information. My lawyer said today that since we did not get any response from INS on the followup letter sent for correction of error, something is pending at INS and I can work here legally for 240 days which covers my stay . I have all supporting documents if at all they ask me at the time of departure.

I don\'t intend to come to US on this H1 in near future. If necessary , I will go for business visa.

Jennifer,
My petition is with CSC.
 
You may be out of status

Rajib,
    Here is my take on the questions posted
  I beleive you are out of status because your H1 expired on 4/13 but your company sent the extension only on 05/02. In case there is a break of status, INS issues the new status from the notice date and not from the expiration of the previous status. So, effectively you will be working without authorization till the notice date. Worse yet, if INS denies your extension you would have worked without authorization all the time. Note that there is 3 year bar from entering US if unathourized work is > 6 months but less than 1 year and a ten year bar for greater than 1year.
    It is my experience that many immigartion lawyers are clueless about things they never handled. Please consult an experienced attorney in area for a second opinion. Also, I would like to hear what other GURUs have to offer.

  Disclaimer: I\'am not a lawyer and the opinions expressed should not be construed as legal advice.
 
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