Mentol Blog's

I would assume that it is already decided with the exception that a visa number is not available. So a final judgement is pending availability of visa numbers.

This is a good sign...I think :D

Friends Hi:
We are leaving for India in January 2009. I have AP and EAD approved with expired H1B visa stamp on my passport with I-485 pending since July 2007. We have booked flights to Mumbai via Amsterdam (KLM -NWA). Do I still need to get a transit visa, even though our flight will be halting for few may be 3-4 hours at Amsterdam. I am super confused. Please guide.
Thanks
RPH

If you have not done this already you are supposed to call the USCIS and update them with your new address apart from sending a AR-11 regarding your address change.

Call customer service and ask them to give you an update and/or request a copy of your receipt notice. The notice goes to your moron lawyer and it takes about 4/5 business days to get a mail from USCIS once they send it out.

I hope this helps and good luck on your green card pursuit...

People who do Consular Processing do complete their medical in designated hospitals in India. I know Jaslok and Lilavati in Mumbai are such approved hospitals and medicals from thsoe are accepted by US Consulate in India for Immigrant Visa (Consular Processing). However, will the same be accepted by CIS for AOS is the question. check with your attorney and do mention this information (that CP candidates can do medical overseas in designated hospitals).

I recently confirmed Netherlands does not need transit visa.
So, I am flying Northwest.

Hi

I and my family members have EXPIRED STUDENT VISA on the Passort. I have H-1 (H-4) approval till 2008 but no VALID VISA STAMP on our Passport.

I am planing a TRIP to INDIA in Summer. Since My I-140 is already approved and I-485 pending, I will have ADVANCE PAROLE in my hand when I visit India. I will also attempt to Get H-1B/H-4 stamp at Mumbai, while I am in India.

My question is Since I dont have any VALID VISA STAMP on my PASSPORT While going as well as in return, WHICH AIRLINE OR TRANSIT COUNTRY I SHOULD SELECT SO THAT I WILL NOT HAVE TO GET TRANSIT VISA ?

IS there any EUROPEAN TRANSIT COUNTRY FOR FLYING TO MUMBAI WHICH DOES NOT REQUIRE TRANSIT VISA FROM INDIAN NATIONALS.

YOUR input will help me lot in be prepared and planing for my summer trip.

Thanks

First of all after applying H1 extension you have a 240 day window when you wont be out of status even if your H1 expired ( as long as the extension is applied when the current was Valid). My H expired on Jan 29th and i applied on Jan 9th and the last 5 months i worked as usual without Visa or I-94 ( but in Status) ...

Don't worry at all - if by chance anyone reaches near 8 month/240 day finish line which is highly unlikely, pump in extra 1000 bucks and upgrade that to a Premium H and you must hear a decision within 15 days....

There are tons of options - even if Premium doesn't work still there are 2 more options ( of course within legal boundary )...

I applied for my H-1 extension in mid April and my current H-1 is valid till mid August. After reading about the waiting times in the posts above I am wondering what happens if I don't get the approval until mid August. Will I be out of status ?

Thanks

Some member has lost the opportunity to file 485 before Aug 17th coz the employer and the lawyer didnt respond and responded after Aug 17th. (How convenient. A lot of employers suddenly found vacation time to take between July 17 and August 17th. Suddenly, between July 17 and Aug 17, the voicemails stopped working and the calls never got returned. Nice. )

The whole thing is here : http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12576

This is something for everyone to watch and learn:

I tried to contact the attorney so badly until Aug 16th, but he never responded. I was able to get hold of him only on Aug 17th. I guess he was directed by my employer so.


The cardinal rule of working with untrustworthy employers is that you need to use ONLY YOUR OWN LAWYER.
The lawyer must be having you as client and also must not have your employer as his client for other cases matters. ONLY then, the lawyer will be working in YOUR interest and not in your employer's interest.

I think people browsing this site by this time, must have learned one thing and I sure have said that a million times.

IF YOU CANNOT TRUST YOUR EMPLOYER 100% THEN YOU NEED TO SHELL SOME $$$ AND HIRE YOUR OWN LAWYER FOR ALL LEGAL MATTERS AND ALL PAPERWORK, FILING, PETITIONING ETC. EVEN H1 RENEWALS.

At the end of the day, between your first day in United States and the day you get your GC, it will cost you nearly 10,000 to have your own lawyer and never use the company-provided free lawyer.

Having your own lawyer means:

1. You pay him, you employ him, he is accountable to you, not your employer.

2. He/she works in your interest, not the employer's interest.

3. If your employer is not co-operating, you will know right away.

4. Your employer would have to come clean and truthful about his intentions of not filing 485. When you have company's lawyer, then the company's lawyer is not going to listen to you. WHY? Because you are not the one paying him. Your employer is.

5. Full transparency and visibility, whenever anything is filed, receipt is issued, RFE comes, reply to RFE goes, etc. With employer's lawyer, you have 0 visibility and you will land in situations mentioned above.

The money you think you are saving with getting a "Free" lawyer is going to cost you much more. The employers are not stupid to provide you free lawyers. The reason they tend to have free lawyers for you is so that they can have total control over your immigration case. Its "Free" for you, but not really. Coz at the end of the day, it costs 10 times more in terms of lost opportunities and delayed immigration. The employers are in the business of doing business and for them, providing you a free lawyer is COST OF DOING BUSINESS because by incurring that cost, they maximize THEIR OWN OPPORTUNITIES to retain you on their payroll for the longest possible time. You may think you are saving money, but this isnt about money.

Its about opportunities and the battle for most opportunities for oneself and the least opportunities for the other guy.

So when you end up spending 10,000 out of pocket on lawyer's fees for H1 renewals, labor, 140, 485 etc, consider that as an opportunity cost.. Just like you need to spend $500 per month on gas and car to be able to get to work, you need to spend a few thousand in order to be able to get opportunities you really want in this country.

One more thing before you go out and hire your own lawyer:

After reading this, if ever you are in search of hiring your own lawyer for immigration needs, make sure that the lawyer has never done any business with your employer. Otherwise it defeats the purpose. You need to ask your new attorney, if he has done or planning to do business with your employer. If he has, or plans to, then dont hire him. Why? Because its obviously conflict of interest. You are asking your lawyer to work in your interest (faster and mistake-free GC filing) and your employer wants to opposite. Its is unethical for lawyers to work for 2 clients with conflicting interests. Also, ask your lawyer before hiring that YOU NEED HIS FULL DISCLOSURE if he plans to do business with your employer. That way, you know that your lawyer is acting in your interest without any possible conflicts. The problem with getting your employer's recommended lawyer is that your employer pays him nearly 50-60 thousand dollars a year in fees, you are a $1000 a year client. Obviously, at the nudging of your employer, suddenly your 485 might get screwed up by your lawyer.

Hi

We are in AOS pending status. I am on EAD.

After seeing the economy I am planning to send my wife to India. She is pregnant (2 months). Now I have job and in future if I get into any trouble with project Etc.. I need to pay the medical insurance and will have lot of financial issues.

How difficult is to bring new infant to US from India while our AOS is pending and apply 485. (Visitor visa Etc..)

Any suggestions.

Thanks

Since you are not on H1 visa status anymore, child can not get H-4 visa to enter into USA. Your child must get immigrant visa as follow-to-join. Immigrant visa can be issued only when your PD is current. You will need to file I-824 with USCIS. (Link for I-824 (http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-824.pdf))

________________________
Not legal advice.
US citizen of Indian origin

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Thats been my understanding of whats been happening since last summer.

I see every reason for USCIS to move the dates forward to early 2007. That will be a sweet spot where they won't have to accept anymore AOS applications (since all applications upto that time have already been filed in July 07). They will have a vast pool of AOS applications from 2001 to 2006, and they can just pick cases from that pool, and approve them.
This is assuming no major jump to CP.

What I understood from Ron's article:
They're not processing fast enough to exhaust visa numbers.
They want to minimize visa number wastage.
They may move dates significantly forward so that they can approve low-hanging fruits to approve as many as possible
Many people will have dates current, but few will get approved... it'll be luck of draw.
Dates will then return to retrogressed levels at the beginning of the next financial year.
However, overall visa number wastage should be much smaller than previous years as they have started moving the dates forward much sooner this time.Disclaimer: This is my interpretation of Ron's post. These are not my predictions.
Personally, I'm Pessimistic... being in India-EB3, that's not a state of mind... it's a lifestyle.

Thanks !!

Is this firm based in NJ near Jersey City?

Hi ->
I got a lawsuit(summons) from my previous Employer ( I quit this consultancy in Oct 2010 ) and got this two days back with below points . I need to respond to them with in 30days. I quit this company has he hasn't paid any bench salary and haven't do any proper marketing - which were force me choose a permanent job.
So could some one please advise me the right lawyer to handle this.I need to answer to this summons and need file a new case against them.

Points that summons contain :
FIRST COUNT : Breach of Contract
Second Count : Tortious Interference
Third Count : Breach of Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing
Fourth Count : Unjust Enrichment
Fifth Count :Misrepresentation and Fraud
SIXTH count : Breach of Duty of Loyalty

Really I would you appreciate you guys advise me right way to handle this.

I have already contributed $ 200 in the past. I prefer to make one time contributions instead of recurring.

Contributions is the need of the hour. Please help in contributions from other members. Thanks.

Hi

I am changing my employment and will be going to reside in Memphis, TN

My employment will be in the Arkansas State !! and My Family will be in GA for some time, I have a Part for the income this year 2009 in GA too!!

Just to add this year (2008) I have to file state taxes for South Carolina as well as GA!!

Looks like my tax story will get more interesting in 2009!!

So what will be my Tax status in Case of TN and AR? Do I will need to file taxes in both state for 2009?

thanks for your experienced input that will help me to be little proactive in this matter.

I guess we would have , as we are not leaving but chose to live with the problems.

To all,
If your EAD is not expiring soon (within 10 days) and your EAD renewal is still pending, there is chance that your expedited request may not be processed at all.
......

good. finally calling USCUS helps and your wife got EAD.:)

in my case i have applied for EAD/AP on 31st July and the same way, i got direct CPO email (no case Approved..) on 26th Aug. spouse AP approved on 20th Aug (but on my AP and spouse EAD still no LUD)

so no one know in what sequence USCIS is processing EAD/AP/485!

I think we can still file till July 31st as per July Visa Bulletin (released on June 12)

This is AWESOME!!!!!

Dear Lofgren,

Thank you very much for your effort.

My friend had a similar RFE and he got a month to answer. Luckily he found his I-20 copy.

Couple of things you can try.

1. Contact the previous company/HR/Lawyer that filed for the first OPT/H1b for you and they might have a copy of it. Most companies/lawfirms retain the files or archive it rather than destroying it. This is the best bet.

2. Whatever the lawyer suggested along with any proof of your I-94 with D/S stamp from your student days along with clear copies of passport stamps with DOE and exit.

Other option is Try to get from University. They will have the copy for the sure.

Ok so herez the update. I went to the INS office and gave them all the details. and since I was supposed to travel out of the country in 3rd and 4th week of March, I requested the lady that if possible can you ask them to give me a date either before March 14th or after March 30th. She made a note of this and said that I should be expecting the FP notice soon.

So I get the FP Notice yesterday with an appointment date of 20th March. Great ... now I cant even go for the appointment. I guess will have to reschedule it.

I've read that its ok to reschedule the appointment just once but not more than once. Any advice on this would be really helpful.

thanks again Leoindiano for your advice !!

Best place to purchase home in DC/MD/VA area is near your place of work. Even if you have a palace but have to spend time every day in commute it is not worth it.