F1 or H4 for Spouse (First time visa) ?

[Siva.M]

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could provide advice on the following situation.

My status:

• H1b with approved I-140 from last year
  

Got recently married (May 11th 2013), my spouse has an I20 from a reputed institute and planning to attend for f1 visa on May 29th 2013.

Her status

• Indian Passport with no previous visa history
  
• was not mentioned in I-140 as it was filed last year
  

the purpose for going for f1 visa is to benefit from scholarship (TA/RA) & OPT.

Any advice is highly appreciated.

Regards

Siva

[ravibits50]

From a visa perspective

F1 is always advantageous than H4 and it gives you easy transit into H1b in case your GC EAD is yet to come.

But being in h4 gives you better tax benfits and I have known some of my friends who work as RA under H4 and still get a assistantship and work but it depends on that particular university. To explore this option , F1 is way safer.

From a visa stampning perspecitve in India, F1 will have the highest scrutiny and rejections. My spouse came on H4 , applied for universiites from US, got an I20 and went back to India to get F1 without any problems.

Applying directly for an F1 however from india will be a hot or miss to be frank with you. We really don't know how they accept/reject cases. If you are very worried about it. Bring her on H4, start the univ program and get transferred to f1. This has a very least possibility of rejection as she is a student in the middle of her coursework.

You can also go for F1 directly from India and if there is a problem , apply for H4 and bring her here.

Regards

Ravi

[shekar11#]

Hey Ravi,

Can you please provide a list of documents u sent with your spouse when she went for F1 stamping in India in middle of masters. I am in same situation. Wife on H4. Converted to F1. Need to go to India for F1 stamping. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Shekar.