L1 - H1 - CoS in pending status - traveling to India - Need help!

[Chintu_USA]

Hi,

I am working with company A on L1b visa valid till Jan-2013 and my wife is working on L2 EAD with company B.

One of the consultant company C is processing our H1B with Change of Status for cap of 2013.

Our visa status is still in initial review and we need to visit India urgently for some unavoidable reasons.

Our consultant attorney says that, if we travel to India, our change of status will get abandoned and we will automatically go out of status from L1B visa as well starting from october 1st 2012.

Only way we can avoid this situation is either by avoiding the visit to India or by getting H1B stamped in October by visiting India again.

Can we by any chance do the following :

1) Visit India and apply for change of status again before october 2012? Is it possible to apply change of status from L1/2 to H1 for both me (on L1B) and my wife (on L2 visa)? If possible, how much long it will take to get processed and when should we apply before or after october?

2) If the Change of Status is abandoned by itself, will our L1B visa will remain valid and upto when? Or this will get automatically revoked?

We have already booked the tickets and going to travel this Friday. Need your desparate help.

Thanks!

[jai5]

1. COS is applied along with filing the H1B application. So COS cannot be filed after returning from India.

2. If COS ia abandoned you come back on your L1 and stay till the valid period.

[lukky]

If your L1/L2 visas are valid till Jan 2013, I think you can go to india and come back before your H1b starts (October 2012). No need to go for stamping.

But, I heard something about your I-94 change (during applying and after approval) that might cause some extra work that you and your employer need to deal with USCIS.

AVOID VISA STAMPING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

Consult an immigration attorney because I'm not sure that my answers are 100% right.

[kattu786]

Change of status will get abandon but most likely petition will get approved (provided documents are in place).

You can come back on L1 anytime as long as the visa is valid.However if you want to work with the h1 employer you would have to go for stamping (assuming its approved).