My friends H1 recently got approved . His existing H1 is valid till 18 th June and his new petition is approved till 2022 Jan
He has to travel to India next week so the question is which petition he should carry for stamping ? Does he need to carry both ? Which stamping he will get ,
You will get H1B stamp based on the i797 that you use to fill visa interview application.
If you want to return to US immediately, i suggest to use the old i797 approval.
The stamp will be given till June 2019 but you can show the new approved i797 at US port of entry and get extended i94.
Thanks a lot Anil.
One last question on this. If my friends wife has to go alone, what will be her stamping date in this case?
Her spouse ( my friends) current h1b petition expires on 15June 2019
Her spouse ( my friends) new approved petition is till Jan 2022
She has her H4 valid till 15 June 2019 . Her H4 extension is still not approved
She will have to go for stamping once she travels to India so can she get her visa stamped till Jan 2022?
The stamping rules are same for both H1B and H4.
The only difference is with H4 is that h4 dates will match the approved H1B i797.
I was in similar situation 2 months back. Please ask your friend to carry both I797 original for H1 and H4 then fill up DS-160 with 2022 I797. That way he will get visa with expiry of 2022.
What was the start date mentioned on your visa stamp if you used the approved H1B extension’s i797 which probably would have start date as 4-5 months in future?
Do you get what I am trying to ask?
Start date mentioned on my visa is Feb-7-2019 (I submitted docs @Dropbox Mumbai on Jan-29-2019).
And if you do not mind sharing the approved extended i797 start date?
1st I797 - Jun 5 2016 to May 23 2019
2nd I797 - May 24 2019 to 2022
ok…thanks @ankitkshah2000
I appreciate it.
So, you got the visa stamp from current date even though you used the i797 that had a future start date.
This is good news/
Yes. That is logical as I had 2 I797 with continuous dates (if that makes sense)
Usually, it depends on visa officer.
Some do consider both and some not. Most of the people just do not show both as visa officer did not ask for it.
Which i797 number did you fill in your DS-160?
I am assuming you would have filled the new i797 number there (i mean the H1B extension receipt number).
So, you just explicitly showed both i797s to visa officer or he asked for it?
On DS-160 i filled up newest/latest I797 number (valid from May 24 2019 to 2022). Then when I went to dropbox Mumbai they asked me for all I797 copies. At port of entry - I didn’t show I797 as officer didn’t ask (as VISA was valid till 2022).
Great @ankitkshah2000.
Thanks for sharing. So, basically submitting both i797 worked for you.
Good information to note.