NIW Questions

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lubdub

Registered Users (C)
Hi
I have question and will appreciate the help.
I am on J-1 visa and my husband is on J-2 with EAD. He is doing a fellowship with two more years to go. I am done with my geriatrics fellowship next year. I have an offer at physician shortage area with NIW in primary care in Texas.

I have a few questions.

1. If I get HRR waiver approved during my fellowship, Can I finish my fellowship before joining my waiver job?
2. Can I apply for NIW after I get HRR waiver approved but before starting my job and a valid contract?
3. My husband (J-2 EAD) will lose hid EAD when I start my job. If I apply for NIW, how long will it take for him to get his EAD. It is important as he wants to minimize the interruption in his fellowship because of this issue.

Any help or guidance from your personal experience will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Lubdub
 
I have question and will appreciate the help.
I am on J-1 visa and my husband is on J-2 with EAD. He is doing a fellowship with two more years to go. I am done with my geriatrics fellowship next year. I have an offer at physician shortage area with NIW in primary care in Texas.

I have a few questions.

1. If I get HRR waiver approved during my fellowship, Can I finish my fellowship before joining my waiver job

Yes you can. every one gets HRR approved before completing fellowship or residency. Once HRR waiver has been approved by USCIS ,you can apply for H1b 6months (or maybe 3 months, i am not sure) before the start of your waiver job. Make sure when you apply for H1b, put the start date of your job in the form. That way your J1 is valid till you complete fellowship. I put my start date as July 1st and completed my fellowship on J1 on June 30th.
When you get your HRR approved by USCIS, the form will state that you are required to join your waiver job with in 90 days of the notice, which is usually not possible for many reasons.. Many people worry about this. My lawyer actually talked to the conrad30 people in Tx and was informed that as long as you join the job in a reasonable time frame after completing fellowship/residency, they wont make a big deal of it.

2. Can I apply for NIW after I get HRR waiver approved but before starting my job and a valid contract?
I am not sure, but many posts in this forum suggest you can. Personally i think atleast a contract would be required to show that you are actually joining work in underserved area. Also you need to convince them that you will be working for 5 years in underserved area. Most people do this by including that time frame in the contract.

3. My husband (J-2 EAD) will lose hid EAD when I start my job. If I apply for NIW, how long will it take for him to get his EAD. It is important as he wants to minimize the interruption in his fellowship because of this issue.

Difficult to say. If you are from a retrogressed country, it will probably take more than a year before you are eligible to even file for I485 with EAD permits. If you are not from a retrogressed country you can file I140/485 and EAD applictions together at the same time. My understanding is EAD applications are usually approved quicker than 485. One concerning scenario would be if your husband changes to EAD and for whatever reason your 1140/485 is rejected, then he would be out of status for the duration he was on EAD.

Any help or guidance from your personal experience will be highly appreciated.

Needless to say, discus with a competent immigration attorney.

Thanks

Lubdub[/QUOTE]
 
Thanks

Thanks Docboston,
That was really very kind of you. I appreciate you time and effort to reply.

I shall be even more thankful if you can answer a couple of follow up questions.

1. We are from Pakistan and I don’t think it is retrogressed country. So that thing is current.
2. What are the risk of I-140 being rejected in a straight forward waiver NIW case?
3. My husband has not got his J-2 visa renewed from Pakistan and is stuck here since start of his residency and he still has 3-4 years of fellowship to go. We would really be excited if we can get his travel papers through EAD and NIW if that is worth the risk.
4. I would really appreciate if you can suggest a good trust worthy lawyer. There are so many out there and it seems that every one wants you to hire them and then you get stuck. Just like every one, I want a lawyer who is available, knows J-1 and NIW stuff and also can help us in a personalized manner. (Asking for gold!!...sorry about it):p . Just want your input.

Thanks again :)

Lubdub
 
I havent heard of any physicians NIW being rejected, so as long as your case is filed properly you should be ok. As you arent from a retrogressed country, u may be able to file I140/485 together and get EAD and AP for your hubby.
Regarding lawyer recommendation theres a sticky in this forum about it in which Hadron and Mr Khanna has posted some very nice points.
 
I did the exact same thing in 2003, before India went into retrogression land


I was about to finish my fellowship (j1) june 03.

I got my INS letter approving the J1 waiver in Feb

Within a week I applied for NIW I-140 with I-485s and EAD app for my wife.

She got her EAD by may, ofcourse, only started using it after I started the job in July .She had no break in her residency.

I was lucky for all these stuff to fall into place quickly, YMMV
 
hashitox, long time no see.

You must be finished with your waiver by now. Are you going to finish your time in the NIW area or are you converting to a LC based petition ?
 
hadron

i don't visit these boards often, still with the same slave driv^H^H^H employer.

hoping to finish 5 years this july (08)

will see how things go
 
Thanks

Thanks everyone
Unfortunately I was unable to get the job. In the lst week my potential employer started asking me things like buying my own malpractice and other such things so we decided not to work for him.

any way still looking for a job.

Thanks all.

Lubdub
 
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