H4 denied

[Raficjamal]

Hi
My Previous employer filed my H1 and H4(wife) extension petition in june 2017.My wife's I94 expired on October 2017.Before getting approval I changed my employer in april 2018 and the new employer filed new H1 for me in april 2018 and H4 for my wife in may 2018. I got my H1 approved through my new employer last week.But, I also got a letter from USCIS stating that the H4 petition that was filed for my wife by my previous employer has been denied on july 11 2018,and we have 33 days to respond if we wish to reapply.
My question here is should I respond to this letter or ignore it.
MY new employer filed H4 is till pending.
If in case the pending case is denied too will my wife be comsidered as illegally stayed after October 2017?

Any thoughts and advice on this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[darkpng]

My understanding is:

Let's say your current pending H4 extension will have a result in Jun 2019.

If your current pending H4 extension is denied, then:

1) Oct 2017 ~ May 2018 will count as out of status (since your previous H4 extension has been denied), or 7 months (over 180 days, 3-year bar if your wife leave the country).

2) May 2018 ~ Jun 2019 will also be counted as out of status as well, so over 365 days of out of status will result in a 10-year bar if she leave the country.

If your current pending H4 is approved, then it depends on how USCIS gives you new I94 effective date:

3) If her starting date is back tracked (the lawyers call it "nunc pro tunc") to Oct 2017 then she is fully covered

4) If her starting date is back dated to May 2018 then your wife have 7 months of gap

5) If the starting date is Jun 2019 (which is very unlikely) then her gap is almost 2 years

The date of Jul 11, 2018 to me is irrelevant because your second H4 extension is pending and covering from May 2018 to Jul 2018 (only if 2nd petition approved)

Usually you can file a premium processing if you and your wife's extension/transfer are filed together. Get the result before Oct 2018 to avoid out of status over 365 days is ideal, but I don't know how you can do it now since your own H1B is approved already. Maybe transfer to another employer to file your 3rd H1B and add 3rd H4 extension to pp?

Any gap will raise a flag when you do i485 interview, so ask a lawyer to see how to avoid the gap.

Good luck!

[Raficjamal]

H4 denied

My understanding is:

Let's say your current pending H4 extension will have a result in Jun 2019.

If your current pending H4 extension is denied, then:

1) Oct 2017 ~ May 2018 will count as out of status (since your previous H4 extension has been denied), or 7 months (over 180 days, 3-year bar if your wife leave the country).

2) May 2018 ~ Jun 2019 will also be counted as out of status as well, so over 365 days of out of status will result in a 10-year bar if she leave the country.

If your current pending H4 is approved, then it depends on how USCIS gives you new I94 effective date:

3) If her starting date is back tracked (the lawyers call it "nunc pro tunc") to Oct 2017 then she is fully covered

4) If her starting date is back dated to May 2018 then your wife have 7 months of gap

5) If the starting date is Jun 2019 (which is very unlikely) then her gap is almost 2 years

The date of Jul 11, 2018 to me is irrelevant because your second H4 extension is pending and covering from May 2018 to Jul 2018 (only if 2nd petition approved)

Usually you can file a premium processing if you and your wife's extension/transfer are filed together. Get the result before Oct 2018 to avoid out of status over 365 days is ideal, but I don't know how you can do it now since your own H1B is approved already. Maybe transfer to another employer to file your 3rd H1B and add 3rd H4 extension to pp?

Any gap will raise a flag when you do i485 interview, so ask a lawyer to see how to avoid the gap.

Good luck!

Thank u for your inputs . The denial letter clearly states that the H4 was denied because the non immigrant visa petition of Raficjamal was denied . So as you are a dependent we denied yours too.

But currently my petition is approved through the current employer. So I?m this scenario I am a bit skeptical if I should really consider responding .