L2 Visa, I94 and EAD Extention

[indianguy]

Hi,

I am an L1-B visa holder and have the visa valid all the way till Nov 2014. My wife has an L2 visa issued to her. Since, my passport was expiring earlier (Mar 2013), both me and my wife had I-94s issued till March 2013 (even though our visas were valid till Nov 2014).

My wife got her EAD done and that too came with the end-date as Mar 2013.

Now, I made a trip to India last month and got my passport renewed till 2022, and when I returned back to the US, I had a new I-94 issued which was valid till the expiry of the visa - Nov 2014. However, my wife - who had to return earlier, had the new I-94 issued again till March 2013.

Question - she would need to extend her EAD now. Does she need to extend her I-94 earlier (requesting to be extended till Nov 2014) and only then proceed with the EAD extention? Or can she directly request for an EAD extention? What would the best option be?

Thanks,

IndianGuy

[kabkaba]

She has to file I-539 to extend her status as well as I-765 to renew her EAD. Both can be filed together in the same envelope. But, whether USCIS will adjudicate both applications together or not cannot be predicted. If it happens that her EAD is still pending in March when the current EAD expires, she will have to stop working until she gets the new one.