H1 to H4 with pending I-485 application

[sbansal7]

My wife will be quitting her job in a week or so. Also, we will be traveling to India in June and coming back in July. With that in mind we have the following questions:-

1) Since we are about to send the I-485 and assuming that she does not quit until the I-485 reaches the US consulate, can she continue to stay in the USA without applying for a COS - say H4? Of course, we will apply for a H4 visa in India before we come back in July.

If that is not true, the most obvious thing to do is to apply for a COS to H4. In that case:-

2) How should we approach the process of transferring from H1B to H4 in order to make sure that she stays in status during the complete process. I am interested in knowing the timing of the application for the H4 and her quitting the job. While she would like to quit ASAP we can tweak that around to make sure that everything is in order.

3) We will be traveling to India in June and coming back in July, if the COS (H1B to H4) is not approved before we leave in June can she apply for an H4 visa interview even if the COS is in process?

4) How does a COS from H1B to H4 affect the I-485 application that we are about to send?

5) If you have applied for a I-485 (which in our case is true) does that have any bearing on the H4 application

Any help in this regard will be highly appreciated!

[JoeF]

A pending I-485 keeps her legal.

And there is no need to change to H4. She can travel with AP just fine.