Urgent! On H1B and Filed Family based AOS, threatened by an employer to report USCIS

[WittyMarmalade]

Dear all,

Please kindly advise me on what i should do. I have entered the US in Oct 2007 on H1B. And, I have filed family based AOS.

The company i work is a private consulting firm. And the nature of work we do is contractual based. I was working on a contract job from December until early March 2008. Then, I have become on bench. The company has a rule that i need to report to the office everyday from 9 -5.

I got married with my USC husband in Jan 2008. We filed I-130/I485 on Feb 2008. (I was still working for them at the time of filing) After filing I-130/1-485 for a month or so, the contract was over. I reported to the office since that time until early April 2008. Last week, i got AP and EAD card. So i want to become independent as soon as i can. I have just started actively applying for jobs myself. But not much is going on. I haven't gotten any offeres and used an EAD card yet.

My employer called today threatening me (in the voice mail) that i have not reported to the office for 2 weeks. They need to know why. If i do not show up next Monday, they will report USCIS that i am no longer their employee.

From my understanding, I already have EAD in hands; and am legal in the US. What if they leterally report to USCIS as such, would i be out of status????

I was thinking about trying to get a job and use EAD as soon as possible(at least before they have a chance to report to USCIS!) After that, whatever they would report to the USCIS wouldn't cause me any problems!!!


Is my thought the right way to go?? Does anyone have any advise??? PLEASE help!!!!

[txh1b]

If you have a pending I485 family based, you have authorized status to stay in US. You need not worry about your employer anymore.

[PraetorianXI]

Your status is now "pending AOS". You are authorized to stay and work using EAD. You can only return to the USA using AP.

I would not be too worried about your employer, even though it seems the timing on this a little hasty. You got to the USA in October and less than 6 months later you were married and filing for AOS? but then again, the H1 is a dual intent visa so you should be fine.

[WittyMarmalade]

Dear PraetorianXI,

Thank you for your kind advice. Please see my situation and timeline below

01/2003: Came to US(F1 visa)
02/2006: Started dating with my USC husband in CA.
06/2006: He moved to IL. I was on OPT (F1 at that time)
10/2006: I relocated to IL, and moved in with my husband.
09/2007: OPT ended. I went out of the US.
10/2007: I came back to the US on H1B.
01/2008: We got married.
02/2008: We filed I130/I485 package to USCIS

03/2008: Fingerprinting was done. I was still working for my employer on H1B. Unfortunately, the project that my company had with its client ended. So, the last cheque i got from them was until March 05, 2008. After that, i had to come back on bench to wait for the next project. I have reported to office everyday since then until the beginning of April.

04/2008: I got AP and EAD in the mail.


My anxiety about this is since I have not officially declared my status as 'AOS pending' by either traveling out of the US (using AP) or getting a new job(using EAD) and thus given up my H1B, my status is hazy. It would be clear cut if I can easily get a new job during the bad economy at this time so that I can just use EAD. Unfortunately, after i have been waiting for almost 2 months, I really do not know when i would get a new job on my own.

I am not sure if my employer reports to USCIS that i am no longer their employer, I (as on H1B) would be out of status even though i already have filed AOS and have AP and EAD in hand.

Or, because I have filed AOS and have AP and EAD in hand, I should just ignore them???

[PraetorianXI]

You do not have to "declare" your status as "AOS pending" as soon as you file I-485 and get the receipt you become that status... the difference is that if you do not use AP or EAD and you maintain the requirements for H1B then you could fall back to that if the AOS is denied...