H1b I-797 Extn of stay approved with future validity

[dissident]

Short story:

A week ago I received the I-797 towards an Extension of Stay petition. Bad news is that the validity period on the I-94 has been set from Oct 1, 2014. This was based on my prior H1-B (COS from F1 to H1b) I-94 with the same number ending Oct 25, 2014. Real bad news is, I visited local USCIS office today and they have no clue on what why and how this is wrong. However the end date has been set as 3 years from expiry of the last I-94 (Oct 24, 2016). Does anybody have experience in resolving such issue ? I was given a referral number today by USCIS. All the while my wife is stuck in India on hold for H4 visa interview, since my H1b was pending approval.

 

Long Story:

 

My company applied for a H1b extension (absolutely no change since last H1b approval) Oct 01, 2013 (yes this is doing rounds since last year).

 

Towards end of Jan 2014 USCIS issued a RFE, which was responded to in less than a month.

 

The application remained in RFE status for about 3 months.

 

My Wife opted to travel to India for a family emergency in Feb, 2014, under the assumption that I would getting the approval before end of April

 

It is first week of May and the status remains the same, my company initiates a premium processing

 

My third week of May petition is approved but with incorrect start date. Irony is that end date is exactly 3 years from previous I-94 end date.

 

This definitely looks like a clerical error, but nobody seems to have an answer as to why  this extension would leave me an invalid status ?

 

What would be the best recourse ? for two objectives of mine getting my wife back into the country (as H4 dependent) and getting my status corrected ?

 

My attorney contacted USCIS and they suggest going the I-102 route, per my personal experience with applications to USCIS, that is another 3-6 months processing time.

 

Would connecting to my local senator help ?

 

Thanks for reading this post and for your thoughts and comments