thomachan72
05-12 01:24 PM
The above statement is incorrect. You will have to re-file the LC in addition to the I-140 for a port. There is some more info on Eb3 to Eb2 here: Upgrading from EB3 to EB2 (http://www.imminfo.com/Library/green_cards/EB/upgrading_eb3_eb2.html)
Oops sorry about that. Thanks for correcting. These things are extremely complicated.:confused:
Oops sorry about that. Thanks for correcting. These things are extremely complicated.:confused:
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper.
imranabdullah
07-23 06:15 PM
Another issue that I think people like me mght face is if we are already in our 7th year H1B. If we want to invoke AC21 without having EAD in hand, we have to apply for H1 transfer. Now if our employer does not gove I-485 RN or I-140 approval notice, how can we apply for H1B extension?
I think that is their strategy,
don't give I-485 RN, don't give I-140 Approval notice, Don't let them apply EAD/AP.........Is there any way out of this if we want to invoke Ac21 in this case?
have you used your checks for filing of application or did your employer paid for it.
When SC cashes your check they issue receipt and put receipt number at the back of the check. thru which you could track your case and get the status by calling service center.
and possibly asking SC to issue you another receipt...
I think that is their strategy,
don't give I-485 RN, don't give I-140 Approval notice, Don't let them apply EAD/AP.........Is there any way out of this if we want to invoke Ac21 in this case?
have you used your checks for filing of application or did your employer paid for it.
When SC cashes your check they issue receipt and put receipt number at the back of the check. thru which you could track your case and get the status by calling service center.
and possibly asking SC to issue you another receipt...
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. New York Rangers 85 Wallpaper
NKR
07-09 08:36 AM
Dude, It is only fair to say that your employer is entitled to keep his money, but if you are worried about not having pay stubs to prove your continuous employment then you work it out with your employer, pay back his money and get your salary. It won�t be easy cause you have already pissed him off.
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
pappu
06-07 02:11 PM
Transaction ID: 7WK494028G568634H
Thank you
Thank you
more...
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
rb_248
10-19 04:58 PM
Friends,
If you want to use AC21 and are worried about matching job descriptions, you may do the following:
Go to the SWA O'net site: O*NET Code Connector - Occupation Search (http://www.onetcodeconnector.org/find/result)
Get the O'net code under which your application was filed from your attorney. Use the search option to find out the details of the job description listed under your O'net code. Write down the job duties of your future employment and see is your future job duties match the duties of your O'net code. If it matches 100% you are good. If not, see to what extent it matches.
My job duties matched about 60-70%. I took the risk because I didn't have a choice. I was laid off.
My understanding is that your future job duties should be compared to your O'net job duties and not to your current function at your current firm.
I guess this information helps you to do your ground work before you talk to your attorney. Using AC 21 is a pretty significant decision and can be done very safely if you have a good attorney to guide you through.
PM me if you have any further questions.
If you want to use AC21 and are worried about matching job descriptions, you may do the following:
Go to the SWA O'net site: O*NET Code Connector - Occupation Search (http://www.onetcodeconnector.org/find/result)
Get the O'net code under which your application was filed from your attorney. Use the search option to find out the details of the job description listed under your O'net code. Write down the job duties of your future employment and see is your future job duties match the duties of your O'net code. If it matches 100% you are good. If not, see to what extent it matches.
My job duties matched about 60-70%. I took the risk because I didn't have a choice. I was laid off.
My understanding is that your future job duties should be compared to your O'net job duties and not to your current function at your current firm.
I guess this information helps you to do your ground work before you talk to your attorney. Using AC 21 is a pretty significant decision and can be done very safely if you have a good attorney to guide you through.
PM me if you have any further questions.
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
vidyakulkarni
12-06 10:56 AM
If you read the post , they say 21 year old means fresh graduate (bach.), it is very high for that age with no or less experience. here in california also freshers get 50-60k start..
more...
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
ramaonline
11-21 02:56 PM
Could you be a little specific?
Was your h1 approved or did you get RFE (Request for evidence). Did your attorney receive the approved petition? Are you currently in the US or outside US?
Was your h1 approved or did you get RFE (Request for evidence). Did your attorney receive the approved petition? Are you currently in the US or outside US?
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
gcformeornot
04-01 06:55 PM
do not post on this forum. I am personally don't like LC subs. Genuine reasons for LS I can understand but this pure abuse of LS.
People pl do not answer.
People pl do not answer.
more...
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
leo2606
08-04 08:47 PM
If I were you, I will pay additional $1,000 to USCIS for getting me out of GC mess.
I've applied for EAD/AP renewal for both myself and my wife. I spent $1,290 for this.
Say I got my GC approved and then I call USCIS and withdraw my pending EAD/AP application. Will I get a refund for pending EAD/AP application, if I get my GC approved before EAD/AP approval?
Thanks,
India EB2; PD - Nov 05
I-140 - Filed Mar '06; Approved Jun '06
I-485 - Reached NSC July 26'07;
I've applied for EAD/AP renewal for both myself and my wife. I spent $1,290 for this.
Say I got my GC approved and then I call USCIS and withdraw my pending EAD/AP application. Will I get a refund for pending EAD/AP application, if I get my GC approved before EAD/AP approval?
Thanks,
India EB2; PD - Nov 05
I-140 - Filed Mar '06; Approved Jun '06
I-485 - Reached NSC July 26'07;
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
BharatPremi
12-08 11:17 PM
And no one can dare to put a price on tension, mental torture through which most are going through. To any one that is the biggest saving and so one should move forward for donating. So please respect the funding request from IV family for respecting yourself.
more...
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
HumJumboHathuJumbo
10-31 11:02 AM
what address should i mail my I-131?. I did not file with my I485 application.there is a chicago address on form I131.should i mail it there?.
thanks
thanks
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
indianabacklog
07-26 02:54 PM
This is not good news for us. The recaptured visas will go towards nurses and none from us wil benefit.We need to shout out loud.
We do benefit indirectly since they are no longer competing for the cherished 140,000 visa numbers that are allocated for employment based adjustment of status applicants.
We do benefit indirectly since they are no longer competing for the cherished 140,000 visa numbers that are allocated for employment based adjustment of status applicants.
more...
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. New York Rangers Wallpaper for
letstalklc
11-05 02:49 PM
Just voted.
Thank you very much for putting here in the immigration forums.
Thank you very much for putting here in the immigration forums.
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
tabletpc
08-24 03:08 PM
Is it true that if we apply for candadian PR we can't apply for visitors visa to cananda.
I want to apply for PR to canada and also would like to go for stamping to cananda sometime after 4-5 months.
Thanks in advance...
I want to apply for PR to canada and also would like to go for stamping to cananda sometime after 4-5 months.
Thanks in advance...
more...
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper 2011. 2011 new york yankees
vandanaverdia
09-11 02:56 PM
FYI
"Competing against fast-growing technology companies in India offering jobs with handsome pay raises and quick promotions, Microsoft has to work harder these days to attract and retain the best and brightest Indian engineering talent."
http://www.canada.com/topics/technol...d08f52&k=30524
Please join the WA state chapter....
"Competing against fast-growing technology companies in India offering jobs with handsome pay raises and quick promotions, Microsoft has to work harder these days to attract and retain the best and brightest Indian engineering talent."
http://www.canada.com/topics/technol...d08f52&k=30524
Please join the WA state chapter....
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
pjalan
04-01 03:08 PM
I spoke to one lawyer and he said I can respond to I-140 RFE myself if I know wht it is about.
If USCIS allows one to port I-1485 and approvable I-140 I am not sure what is all this mess about?
Can't I myself respond to the RFE?
If USCIS allows one to port I-1485 and approvable I-140 I am not sure what is all this mess about?
Can't I myself respond to the RFE?
more...
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
ck_b2001
07-19 10:54 AM
guess what i have a question. this is what happened. we are married in india quite sometime back, however, we had no marriage certificate and could not get one from india after trying for a long time. so we got married again here itself some weeks back. we had been filing tax as a couple until now. how to amend that?
you are in a country where marriage is not required to live together. I bet many couple file tax jointly even though they are not married officially so you should be okay.
you are in a country where marriage is not required to live together. I bet many couple file tax jointly even though they are not married officially so you should be okay.
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
pellucid
04-05 03:31 PM
America embraces foreign-born ballplayers, but not engineers, much to the
dismay of big business, says Fortune's Marc Gunther.
By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Imagine if the baseball season had begun this week
without such foreign-born stars as Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Justin
Morneau and the latest Japanese import, pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and his
mysterious "gyroball."
It wouldn't be as much fun, would it? Fans want to see the most skilled
players compete - immigrants and Americans.
So why is it that people don't want skilled immigrants to compete for jobs
in the multibillion-dollar technology industry?
They view these immigrants as a threat. CNN anchor Lou Dobbs argues
permitting more educated, foreign-born engineers, scientists and teachers
into the country would force many qualified American workers out of the job
market.
That may be true in baseball, where the number of jobs on big league rosters
is fixed. That's not necessarily so in technology, where people with skills
and ambition help expand job opportunities. Immigrants helped start Sun
Microsystems, Intel (Charts), Yahoo! (Charts), eBay (Charts) and Google (
Charts). Would America be better off if they'd stayed home?
"This is not about filling jobs that would go to Americans," says Robert
Hoffman, an Oracle (Charts) vice president and co-chair of a business
coalition called Compete America, which favors allowing more skilled workers
into the United States. "This is important to create jobs. It's not a zero
sum game."
This week, as it happens, is not just opening week of the baseball season.
It's the week when employers rush to apply for the limited number of visas,
called H-1B visas, that became available on April 1 to allow them to
temporarily hire educated, foreign-born workers. This year, Congress has
allowed 65,000 of these H-1B visas, plus another 20,000 for foreign-born
students who earn advanced degrees from U.S. universities. After obtaining
guest-worker visas, employees can then seek green cards that allow them to
stay in the United States
FedEx and UPS did a brisk business last weekend because the visas are
awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. The first 65,000 are already
gone. The 20,000 earmarked for graduates of U.S. universities will be
distributed in a month or two, experts say.
This makes it very hard for companies to hire foreign-born graduates of the
U.S.'s top schools. More than half the graduate students in science and
engineering at U.S. universities were born overseas.
"It's sending a signal to the best international students that they may not
want to make their career in the United States," says Stuart Anderson,
executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a
research group. (Anderson, an immigration specialist, also wrote a study of
baseball and immigration that's available here as a PDF file.)
Expanding H1-B visas is a top priority for U.S. tech firms. Bill Gates,
Microsoft's (Charts) chairman, told Congress last month: "I cannot overstate
the importance of overhauling our high-skilled immigration system....
Unfortunately, our immigration policies are driving away the world's best
and brightest precisely when we need them most."
CNN's Lou Dobbs was unimpressed. "The Gates plan would force many qualified
American workers right out of the job market," he fretted on the air after
Gates testified. "There's something wrong when a man as smart as Bill Gates
advances an elitist agenda, without regard to the impact that he's having on
working men and women in this country."
It's not just Dobbs. Internet bulletin boards and blogs are filled with
complaints about foreign-born engineers. The U.S. branch of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the leading society of engineers,
brought about 60 engineers to Washington last month to ask for reforms to
the H-1B program. IEEE-USA supports a bill proposed by Senators Dick Durbin,
an Illinois Democrat, and Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, that is
designed to crack down on companies that use the guest worker program to
displace Americans from jobs.
As it happens, most of the largest users of the H1-B program are not
American companies but foreign firms that want to move jobs out of the
United States. Seven of the 10 firms that requested the most H1-B visas in
2006 were outsourcing firms based in India, which use the visas to train
workers in the United States before they are rotated home, according to Ron
Hira, an engineer who teaches public policy at the Rochester Institute of
Technology. Indian outsourcing firms Wipro and Infosys were the two top
requestors of H1-B visas.
In a paper for the Economic Policy Institute, Hira says that expanding H-1B
visas without improving controls will "lead to more offshore outsourcing of
jobs, displacement of American technology workers (and) decreased wages and
job opportunities" for Americans. He told me: "Bill Gates talks about how
you are shutting out $100,000-a-year software engineers. But if you look at
the median wage for new H1-B workers, it's closer to $50,000."
Asked about that, Jack Krumholtz, who runs Microsoft's Washington office,
said the average salary for Microsoft's H1-B workers is more than $109,000,
and that the company spends another $10,000 to $15,000 per worker applying
for the visas and helping workers apply for green cards. "We only hire
people who we want to have on our team for the long run," he said.
It seems clear that Microsoft - along with Oracle, Intel, Hewlett Packard
and other members of the Compete America coalition - do not use the guest
worker program to hire cheap labor. They just want to hire the best
engineers, many of whom are foreign born.
So what to do? Everyone seems to agree that the H1-B program needs fixing. (
Even Hira, the critic, says the United States should absorb more high-
skilled immigrants.) Whether Congress can fix it is questionable. The guest-
worker program is tied up in the debate over broader immigration reforms.
But guess what? Just last year, Congress passed the Compete Act of 2006,
which stands (sort of) for "Creating Opportunities for Minor League
Professions, Entertainers and Teams through Legal Entry." Yes, that law made
it easier for baseball teams to get visas for foreign-born minor league
players.
If the government can fix the problem for baseball, surely it can do so for
technology, too.
dismay of big business, says Fortune's Marc Gunther.
By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Imagine if the baseball season had begun this week
without such foreign-born stars as Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Justin
Morneau and the latest Japanese import, pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and his
mysterious "gyroball."
It wouldn't be as much fun, would it? Fans want to see the most skilled
players compete - immigrants and Americans.
So why is it that people don't want skilled immigrants to compete for jobs
in the multibillion-dollar technology industry?
They view these immigrants as a threat. CNN anchor Lou Dobbs argues
permitting more educated, foreign-born engineers, scientists and teachers
into the country would force many qualified American workers out of the job
market.
That may be true in baseball, where the number of jobs on big league rosters
is fixed. That's not necessarily so in technology, where people with skills
and ambition help expand job opportunities. Immigrants helped start Sun
Microsystems, Intel (Charts), Yahoo! (Charts), eBay (Charts) and Google (
Charts). Would America be better off if they'd stayed home?
"This is not about filling jobs that would go to Americans," says Robert
Hoffman, an Oracle (Charts) vice president and co-chair of a business
coalition called Compete America, which favors allowing more skilled workers
into the United States. "This is important to create jobs. It's not a zero
sum game."
This week, as it happens, is not just opening week of the baseball season.
It's the week when employers rush to apply for the limited number of visas,
called H-1B visas, that became available on April 1 to allow them to
temporarily hire educated, foreign-born workers. This year, Congress has
allowed 65,000 of these H-1B visas, plus another 20,000 for foreign-born
students who earn advanced degrees from U.S. universities. After obtaining
guest-worker visas, employees can then seek green cards that allow them to
stay in the United States
FedEx and UPS did a brisk business last weekend because the visas are
awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. The first 65,000 are already
gone. The 20,000 earmarked for graduates of U.S. universities will be
distributed in a month or two, experts say.
This makes it very hard for companies to hire foreign-born graduates of the
U.S.'s top schools. More than half the graduate students in science and
engineering at U.S. universities were born overseas.
"It's sending a signal to the best international students that they may not
want to make their career in the United States," says Stuart Anderson,
executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a
research group. (Anderson, an immigration specialist, also wrote a study of
baseball and immigration that's available here as a PDF file.)
Expanding H1-B visas is a top priority for U.S. tech firms. Bill Gates,
Microsoft's (Charts) chairman, told Congress last month: "I cannot overstate
the importance of overhauling our high-skilled immigration system....
Unfortunately, our immigration policies are driving away the world's best
and brightest precisely when we need them most."
CNN's Lou Dobbs was unimpressed. "The Gates plan would force many qualified
American workers right out of the job market," he fretted on the air after
Gates testified. "There's something wrong when a man as smart as Bill Gates
advances an elitist agenda, without regard to the impact that he's having on
working men and women in this country."
It's not just Dobbs. Internet bulletin boards and blogs are filled with
complaints about foreign-born engineers. The U.S. branch of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the leading society of engineers,
brought about 60 engineers to Washington last month to ask for reforms to
the H-1B program. IEEE-USA supports a bill proposed by Senators Dick Durbin,
an Illinois Democrat, and Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, that is
designed to crack down on companies that use the guest worker program to
displace Americans from jobs.
As it happens, most of the largest users of the H1-B program are not
American companies but foreign firms that want to move jobs out of the
United States. Seven of the 10 firms that requested the most H1-B visas in
2006 were outsourcing firms based in India, which use the visas to train
workers in the United States before they are rotated home, according to Ron
Hira, an engineer who teaches public policy at the Rochester Institute of
Technology. Indian outsourcing firms Wipro and Infosys were the two top
requestors of H1-B visas.
In a paper for the Economic Policy Institute, Hira says that expanding H-1B
visas without improving controls will "lead to more offshore outsourcing of
jobs, displacement of American technology workers (and) decreased wages and
job opportunities" for Americans. He told me: "Bill Gates talks about how
you are shutting out $100,000-a-year software engineers. But if you look at
the median wage for new H1-B workers, it's closer to $50,000."
Asked about that, Jack Krumholtz, who runs Microsoft's Washington office,
said the average salary for Microsoft's H1-B workers is more than $109,000,
and that the company spends another $10,000 to $15,000 per worker applying
for the visas and helping workers apply for green cards. "We only hire
people who we want to have on our team for the long run," he said.
It seems clear that Microsoft - along with Oracle, Intel, Hewlett Packard
and other members of the Compete America coalition - do not use the guest
worker program to hire cheap labor. They just want to hire the best
engineers, many of whom are foreign born.
So what to do? Everyone seems to agree that the H1-B program needs fixing. (
Even Hira, the critic, says the United States should absorb more high-
skilled immigrants.) Whether Congress can fix it is questionable. The guest-
worker program is tied up in the debate over broader immigration reforms.
But guess what? Just last year, Congress passed the Compete Act of 2006,
which stands (sort of) for "Creating Opportunities for Minor League
Professions, Entertainers and Teams through Legal Entry." Yes, that law made
it easier for baseball teams to get visas for foreign-born minor league
players.
If the government can fix the problem for baseball, surely it can do so for
technology, too.
new york rangers wallpaper 2011. new york rangers wallpaper
gcformeornot
12-31 11:16 PM
vote..............
perseus
07-17 01:04 AM
here is a brief account of my, and my spouse's, arduous but successful journey toward the coveted green cards. i hope this account helps you somehow.
(note: what you read below is all of what i am willing to share. i have spent a lot of time in typing it. i will not have the time or inclination for any elaborations or explanations!)
1. landed in the united states on f-1 visa -- september 2000.
2. arrested on misdemeanor shoplifting charge after prank went awry -- june 2001; judge dropped charge in july 2001 and also sealed and expunged the record.
3. changed from f-1 to h-1b upon accepting job offer from employer A, via about two months of c.p.t. in september 2003 (never used o.p.t.)
4. obtained labor certification in may 2004, and approval of i-140 (via eb-2) in march 2005, both via employer A. (priority date was, hence, may 2004).
5. got married in home country in june 2006; spouse landed in the united states on h-4 in november 2006.
6. graduated with advanced degree (and high academic honors) in december 2006.
7. transferred h-1b from employer A to employer B in september 2007; abandoned employer A's i-140 approval.
8. spouse, who had been on h-4 since november 2006, changed to f-1 in september 2007 to pursue advanced degree; spouse graduated in may 2009.
9. arrested in april 2008 for driving while visually impaired; convicted and punished by judge with three-month driving probation and fine.
10. obtained new labor certification in march 2008 and obtained new i-140 approval (again via eb-2) in september 2008; both via employer B.
11. mailed i-485s for self and spouse in october 2008; did not realize while mailing that the priority date had recently retrogressed (had no attorney assistance); but uscis accepted petitions, cashed checks, and processed the i-485s by sending self and spouse biometric appointments and an r.f.e. (for spouse).
12. transferred h-1b again, from employer B to employer C, in june 2009, more than 180 days after i-485s had been pending; spouse simultaneously applied for change of status from f-1 to h-4.
13. self and spouse invited for i-485 interviews in october 2009 based on self's i-140 approval obtained through employer B; i-485 petitions denied because priority date had not been current when filed; self and spouse shocked and in near-panic! self began to consider restarting green card process from i-140 stage, this time via eb-1.
14. h-1b extended in december 2010 for a year, via employer C's petition; at time of extension approval, self's original six years on h-1b had elapsed.
15. re-filed i-485s in january 2010, this time with attorney's help (mainly to write cover letter).
16. self and spouse invited for i-485 interviews again in june 2010, based on second i-485 petitions (based on self's i-140 approval obtained via employer B, even though at this time self was with employer C with previously denied -- for a technicality -- i-485s); i-485 petitions approved at the interview -- jai siyaram!
17. self and spouse received approval notices and "card production ordered" emails, all dated 13 days after interview.
18. received green cards and "welcome to the united states" fliers, both in july 2010, 29 days after i-485 interviews -- jai shri krishna!
notes in conclusion:
1. the green card process via employment, from h-1b through i-485, with possible multiple approvals/denials of each, is daunting due to the time and expense involved (including possible cost of attorney)
2. uscis's emphasis on technicalities can be frustrating; in our experience, approval of a i-485 is ultimately a discretion exercised by a single reviewing officer.
3. overall, applicant and any spouse/kids (a) must have maintained legal status throughout the h1b through i-485 process, and (b) must never have been convicted of felonious assault or moral turpitude.
4. in the end, applicant would find that the immigration system works, slow though it is because of congressional quotas and a somewhat slothful or myopic uscis.
5. i offer my best wishes to all that are reading this, regardless of citizenship. as a proud (and relieved!) new permanent resident of the united states, i say to you, "good luck and an advance welcome!"
reminder: what you read above is all of what i am willing to share. i spent a lot of time in typing it. i won't have the time or inclination for elaborations or explanations but, most sincerely, i wish you well!
(note: what you read below is all of what i am willing to share. i have spent a lot of time in typing it. i will not have the time or inclination for any elaborations or explanations!)
1. landed in the united states on f-1 visa -- september 2000.
2. arrested on misdemeanor shoplifting charge after prank went awry -- june 2001; judge dropped charge in july 2001 and also sealed and expunged the record.
3. changed from f-1 to h-1b upon accepting job offer from employer A, via about two months of c.p.t. in september 2003 (never used o.p.t.)
4. obtained labor certification in may 2004, and approval of i-140 (via eb-2) in march 2005, both via employer A. (priority date was, hence, may 2004).
5. got married in home country in june 2006; spouse landed in the united states on h-4 in november 2006.
6. graduated with advanced degree (and high academic honors) in december 2006.
7. transferred h-1b from employer A to employer B in september 2007; abandoned employer A's i-140 approval.
8. spouse, who had been on h-4 since november 2006, changed to f-1 in september 2007 to pursue advanced degree; spouse graduated in may 2009.
9. arrested in april 2008 for driving while visually impaired; convicted and punished by judge with three-month driving probation and fine.
10. obtained new labor certification in march 2008 and obtained new i-140 approval (again via eb-2) in september 2008; both via employer B.
11. mailed i-485s for self and spouse in october 2008; did not realize while mailing that the priority date had recently retrogressed (had no attorney assistance); but uscis accepted petitions, cashed checks, and processed the i-485s by sending self and spouse biometric appointments and an r.f.e. (for spouse).
12. transferred h-1b again, from employer B to employer C, in june 2009, more than 180 days after i-485s had been pending; spouse simultaneously applied for change of status from f-1 to h-4.
13. self and spouse invited for i-485 interviews in october 2009 based on self's i-140 approval obtained through employer B; i-485 petitions denied because priority date had not been current when filed; self and spouse shocked and in near-panic! self began to consider restarting green card process from i-140 stage, this time via eb-1.
14. h-1b extended in december 2010 for a year, via employer C's petition; at time of extension approval, self's original six years on h-1b had elapsed.
15. re-filed i-485s in january 2010, this time with attorney's help (mainly to write cover letter).
16. self and spouse invited for i-485 interviews again in june 2010, based on second i-485 petitions (based on self's i-140 approval obtained via employer B, even though at this time self was with employer C with previously denied -- for a technicality -- i-485s); i-485 petitions approved at the interview -- jai siyaram!
17. self and spouse received approval notices and "card production ordered" emails, all dated 13 days after interview.
18. received green cards and "welcome to the united states" fliers, both in july 2010, 29 days after i-485 interviews -- jai shri krishna!
notes in conclusion:
1. the green card process via employment, from h-1b through i-485, with possible multiple approvals/denials of each, is daunting due to the time and expense involved (including possible cost of attorney)
2. uscis's emphasis on technicalities can be frustrating; in our experience, approval of a i-485 is ultimately a discretion exercised by a single reviewing officer.
3. overall, applicant and any spouse/kids (a) must have maintained legal status throughout the h1b through i-485 process, and (b) must never have been convicted of felonious assault or moral turpitude.
4. in the end, applicant would find that the immigration system works, slow though it is because of congressional quotas and a somewhat slothful or myopic uscis.
5. i offer my best wishes to all that are reading this, regardless of citizenship. as a proud (and relieved!) new permanent resident of the united states, i say to you, "good luck and an advance welcome!"
reminder: what you read above is all of what i am willing to share. i spent a lot of time in typing it. i won't have the time or inclination for elaborations or explanations but, most sincerely, i wish you well!
lostinbeta
10-04 12:20 AM
Good Luck=)