L1B -GC in the 5th year

[ritesh]

Hi,

Currently my husband is on L1B and I am on L2. Our visa and I-94 got expired on Dec 1^st 2011.

We have stayed in US for 4.5 years by Dec 1st 2011 on L1B petition. We have been in India for about 6 months (not continuously) during the 5 years of L1petition tenure(Dec 2006-Dec 2011). And my husband’s company filed extension for the period which we spent in India(6 months) on Nov 18 2011 and the case is in Initial Review status with USCIS.

Now my husband's company is filing GC for us in EB2.What are the possibilities for us to continue our stay in US after May 2012.

1.Is it possible to get the labor clearance by jun 2012, assuming we will get the extension for 6 months i.e., till June 1 2012?

2.Is it better to go out of US for 1 year and re-enter with a new L/H petition? Do we need to stay in US while the labor application is in processing, if we exit US after filing labor is there any impact on the labor processing as we will not present in US.

3.Assuming we got the labor clearance before Jun 2012, Is it possible to get the L1 B extension based on the labor clearance. Or do we need approved I-140 for extension or Does my husband needs to change his status to H1 to get extension.

(I heard that in case of H1B, we can get 1 year extension with the approved labor and 3 years of extension with the approved I- 140. If this is correct is it applicable for the L1 visa also?)

Please advice.

Thanks in advance.