H4 to H1 and Travelling to India

[vbrsandeep]

Hello all,

My wife came to US on H4 in March 2014. Her H4 is valid till August 2015.
Immediately I have filed H1B on April 1 2014, her visa got approved and she is on H1B right now.

My wife is traveling to India to attend an occasion in two weeks.

When I talked to her employer, he mentioned that my wife can travel and when she come back she has to tell Port of Entry officer to active H4 instead of using H1B.
Is that a correct statement? or do I need to change it back to H4 before she travel or can change it back to H4 when she is in India?

Please advise ASAP.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

[raghvi]

Hello all,

My wife came to US on H4 in March 2014. Her H4 is valid till August 2015.
Immediately I have filed H1B on April 1 2014, her visa got approved and she is on H1B right now.

My wife is traveling to India to attend an occasion in two weeks.

When I talked to her employer, he mentioned that my wife can travel and when she come back she has to tell Port of Entry officer to active H4 instead of using H1B.
Is that a correct statement? or do I need to change it back to H4 before she travel or can change it back to H4 when she is in India?

Please advise ASAP.

Thanks,
Sandeep.

Is your spouse planning to work after returning back from India? If yes, then upon her return on H4 visa, her employer would first need to apply a H4 to H1 Change Of Status, and she should work only after the approval of her H4 to H1 COS.

Asking her to come back on H4 and then applying H4 to H1 COS seems to be a round about way to avoid stamping by the employer.

This is my opinion not legal advice.

[vbrsandeep]

Thank you Raghvi,

Yes my wife is willing to work after coming back. Her employer told the same thing, after coming back they will apply for COS from H4 to H1B.

So to test my understanding.
My wife can travel to India and when she come back, at Port of Entry she has to activate her H4. After that employer has to change the status to H1 whenever she is ready again.

Thank you once again.

[raghvi]

Thank you Raghvi,

Yes my wife is willing to work after coming back. Her employer told the same thing, after coming back they will apply for COS from H4 to H1B.

So to test my understanding.
My wife can travel to India and when she come back, at Port of Entry she has to activate her H4. After that employer has to change the status to H1 whenever she is ready again.

Thank you once again.

Yes. But the biggest risk is that if after coming back her H4 to H1 COS gets rejected she cannot work. Or her H1 gets approved as consular processing she would have to leave US and go for H1 stamping in order to start working.

This is my opinion not legal advice.

[vbrsandeep]

Yes. But the biggest risk is that if after coming back her H4 to H1 COS gets rejected she cannot work. Or her H1 gets approved as consular processing she would have to leave US and go for H1 stamping in order to start working.

This is my opinion not legal advice.

Sure. I was little worried about that, I will take it as an advice.
Thanks a lot raghvi