Change of status stamping required H4 to H1B with Delhi consular processing

Hello, I am currently on H4 Ead working with my employer. My H4 EAD is expiring in the month of June 2020.

With the same employer, I have my H1B approved last October 2019. However, my change of status from H4 to H1B was denied by USCIS and I was advised to get the H1B stamping done through the consular from India to change the status from H4 to H1B.

I had my appointment booked this month for this change of status, but due to this Pandemic situation, all appointments are canceled now. My concern is what if I do not get any visa interview appointment until June.

I will be without any work permit since I did not apply for my H4 extension and H4EAD extension after June 2020. Please advise what I should do. Thank you.

You cannot do anything if the H1B visa appointment is not available.

You can keep checking and see if any US embassy opens visa appointments in Mexico, Canada or India.

My suggestion at this time is to apply H4 and EAD Extension as coronavirus situation may or may not improve quickly. Nobody knows.

Thank you Anil for your response. Mu husband already filed his H1B in regular processing and now I will file my H4 and H4ead. After biometric appointment we might go for H1B premium to expedite the process.

Not sure how long this whole process will take. Meanwhile just trying to get h1b appointment as soon as the Delhi consulate becomes operational again and praying this whole pandemic situation to be over for everyone’s well being. Stay home and stay safe to all.

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Hope you all are staying home and safe.

I have a question if you could please reply. Do we have any update on automatic extension of H4EAD visa due to Covid 19? How one can meet the biometric requirement for H4EAD extension since the USCIS locations are closed? and usually how long it is taking now to get the H4EAD if filed recently.

Thank you for your support.

USCIS has not announced anything for H4 EAD until today due to COVID-19 situation.

As per current situation, biometric appointments will rescheduled later.

You can check current H4 EAD processing time here.

Thank you so much Anil for your response. My husband H1B is already being filed along with my H4. Now he is filing for my H4EAD. Do you think if we do his H1B with premium processing now, this will help in getting mine H4 and H4ead little early. Thank you.

Hi Anil,

As you know my situation from the above mentioned details that my H1B is approved but the change of status was denied since I travelled inadvertently to Canada when my h1b petition was being filed.

I am currently on H4EAD expiring on June 18th and not able to travel to India to change my status from H4 to h1b due to COVID 19. I am filing my H4 and H4EAD by end of this week to maintain a legal status in the US.

This morning I had a discussion with my company’s attorney and he has advised me to put in H4EAD expedite request to see if I can get my H4EAD in time or else he is waiting for premium processing to re-open so that he can re-apply my change of status petition while being in US.

Because if he files my change of status petition now under regular processing this will take about few months and also if in between the borders open for travel; then filed petition will be deemed canceled.

So he has asked me to either wait for borders to open so that I can get my H1B interview in Delhi consulate to change my status or we wait until premium processing re-opens to file my change of status petition again. H4 ead processing will run anyways in parallel to be on a safer side.

Can you please confirm if this approach is correct and any idea or suggestions how we can get H4ead application expedite in my case when h1b is approved but COS denied and not able to travel due to COVID 19? Any idea by when premium processing will re-open? At what point do you think it make sense to file my change of status new petition while being in US irrespective it is normal or premium processing?

I suggest to read this:

I suggest to file H1B COS now and then upgrade it to premium as and when its available.

Thank you Anil for your quick reply. I have a follow-up question.

  1. If we file my COS application h4 to h1b now and in parallel I have filed my H4 and h4ead. Will it create any sort of conflicts between both the applications?

  2. If I file my COS here, will I still be able to go to India and take my visa interview in case Indian embassy opens sooner while COS being filed here?

There is no conflict but it will create complication for status changes as the most recent approval will overwrite the previous one.

You can go out of US to get visa stamp anytime irrespective of pending COS application in US. Once you leave US, the pending COS is automatically abandoned by USCIS.

Its your choice as to what you want to do.