Travel On OPT while awaiting H1 lottery decision

[molagapodi]

Please help me out with advise/suggestions folks

My wife is currently on her OPT (F1-visa) which will NOT expire until end of next year (30 December 2018). Her company (full time) has applied for her H1 & as of today she does not know if her h1 was lottery picked or not. We are also when the lottery will be picked. In the meantime, we are flying to India (May 18 to June 13). Now, given this scenario, I have following questions:

1. If her h1 is picked while we are in India, will it be a problem for her to come back even though she has an unexpired OPT?
2. Will her H1 application be abandoned if her application gets picked and they find out that she is currently not in America? And if this is true will she be able to travel back to India?
3. Will it be safe to travel back with her OPT visa if the H1 gets rejected?

We were initially scheduled to do this trip in february but because of the executive order and travel ban that came during that time, we were advised to not travel since I needed to get my visa stamped. We hence had it rescheduled to the above mentioned dates.

Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[pontevecchio]

1. She can come back on her F1 visa which will remain active till October,1

2. Her COS from F1 to H1 will be abandoned by travel before the H1 decision, though the H1 will be decided on merits.

3. Yes

[molagapodi]

2. Her COS from F1 to H1 will be abandoned by travel before the H1 decision, though the H1 will be decided on merits.

So your advise would be to strictly not travel during those dates unless H1 application doesnt get picked? 

What if we came to know that her application was in fact picked before our travel date? Would we still risk abandonment of the COS?

I wish there was some kind of USCIS documentation regarding this which I could refer to. Please point me towards it if you can.

Thanks

[shekar11#]

22 hours ago, molagapodi said:

2. Her COS from F1 to H1 will be abandoned by travel before the H1 decision, though the H1 will be decided on merits.

So your advise would be to strictly not travel during those dates unless H1 application doesnt get picked? 

What if we came to know that her application was in fact picked before our travel date? Would we still risk abandonment of the COS?

I wish there was some kind of USCIS documentation regarding this which I could refer to. Please point me towards it if you can.

Thanks

Better not to travel.

COS will still be abandoned even if you travel after the H-1 application is picked.