Maintaining status between H4 and h1B

[skyneel]

My husband and I have been in the US since 2003 and have held the F1, H1b and H4 visas. Recently, my husband’s office decided not to renew/extend his H1B which is set to expire soon along with I-94 (December 9). I was on H4 which is tied to my husband’s H1B, waiting for two concurrent H1Bs to process—one for an academic position (part time) and one for postdoctoral academic position (full time). The first position which has its LC done, will be filed soon but only valid from Jan 20, 2020 to May 21, 2020. The second, we are waiting for the University to do a painfully long prevailing wage determination process. It was filed end of August. They anticipate a return in December, after which they will file my H1b. Both H1bs are scheduled for premium processing.

 

So, in all, we should have something in January 2020. However, we have a status gap between December 9th 2019 and January 20th 2020...

 

We want to know what our options are with maintaining status until Jan 20, 2020: 

--Is a change to B2 advisable? We are not sure about both our future H1bs. Will they be bridge application conditions?. Will USCIS wait for B2 adjudication before H1b adjudication?

--We have also considered going for consulate H1b stamping in our home country, but it may take an uncertain while.....(visa interview vagaries, administrative processing etc..)

--A third case is COS to B2, and leaving the country just before my H1b is filed and returning on the H1b stamp to avoid the bridging condition.

 

Are any of these options better than the other?

Thanks for your time!

 

 

[pontevecchio]

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Edited November 18, 2019 by pontevecchio