Wife H1B.....Husband H4...Possible to get a visa?

[keyboard]

This is the situation:

As of now, me and my husband are both on H1B.

Me: Master's degree, on my first H1B

My husband: Master's degree, on his second H1B (exp date: 04/11/2009). His PERM LC and I-140 is approved. He is going to resign his job and plans to do his MFA (Music) for Spring 2009. He is not going to get his Scholarship for 2 semesters. He is planning to change his visa status to H4 rather than to F1 for the following reasons:

1) As I have all my H1B documents perfect (I believe), getting visa on H4 has high success rate than F1. Is this true?

2) He did not get a scholarship for his first 2 semesters. If he performs well, he might get GFTA on third semester which is not confirmed yet. So we believe going to Visa for F1 without scholarship has less chances to get visa. Is this true?

3) General myth(?) is that if a person wants to get F1 visa second time, he has to do higher degree than what he has done before. (like doing Ph D if he has done Master's before). So possibility of getting visa for Master's degree second time is less. Is this true?

4) Because this is a 'music' degree, this looks something odd when compared to other degrees. So, VO might reject visa. (One of our friend, VIP's son, got rejected for the F1 visa for the same degree before 3 years. Finally he has to go to UK for his musical studies.) (Do they give visa only to Engg./Business and not to arts?) Is this true?

Because of the above 4 reasons, he prefers to be on H4 rather than on F1. Is this the better way or is there any other way to handle this?

My other questions:

5) Usually husband will be on H1B and wife will come on H4. If it is the other way around, will the VO rejects my husband visa? (just for this reason)

6) In case VO asks my husband, what he is going to do on H4, what should his answers be? (studying or just taking care of my wife)

7) In my GC, if I claim my husband as dependent, I believe there is not going to be any problem. Am I right?

Senior members, please advise on this situation. I thank everyone in advance for your time and courtesy.

[txh1b]

1. Yes
2. Depends. Leaning towards a Yes.
3. Not really. But kinda true.
4. Not completely true. If the person has some music and fine arts studies and experience in the home country, that helps.


Go for a H4. Change over to F1 if he is going to get an assitantship by doing a COS while in US.

[keyboard]

Thanks txh1b...Questions 5) 6) 7)

Thanks very much txh1b.

I appreciate your time and response.

Also can you please look into questions 5,6,7. I partially know the answers but I don't want to be a 'frog in the well' assuming what I think is right.

[txh1b]

I did not notice those. Anyway, here is my 2 cents.

5. That is a male chauvinist view. VOs are not that way.
6. Depends. He can take a break from work and stay home. That is his choice.
7. No issues. The society has come a long way from this.

[keyboard]

Thanks again txh1b.

Thanks again txh1b.