H4 visa and US travel eligibility

[Akshay Gondkar]

Hi,

I am on H1B status in US. I had recently changed my employer from A to B in US. Employer B has filed a new petition for me and my spouse in mid of September 2015 and is still under approval process. It might take another 3 more months to get approval notice of petition. Last week my spouse had to travel to India for urgent work and now she need to travel back to US. But as my employer is changed, I suppose that she needs to go for new visa stamping in India before she could travel to US. We need to wait till my petition is approved and then she can go for stamping.

The current H4 visa stamped on her passport is from my previous employer and is valid till mid of 2017. I checked the status of my petition through previous employer and it is showing that USCIS has received correspondence( probably to revoke my petition) and is under review. My question is, can my spouse travel to US on the visa stamped for previous employer till the petition is actually revoked? Or we need to wait till my new petition is approved by USCIS?

Thank you in advance.

[shervin143]

Her visa is not a problem. She can use her existing visa to return. However, she need to carry your latest approval notice to show at the POE and that approval notice should be from your current employer. She cannot travel with your previous approval notice since you no longer work for that employer. So she should travel after you receive your approval for the current employer. Since she left when her H4 extension is under process, her extension will be denied. When she re-enters, it is possible that her I-94 is issued only till the visa expiry date. So if she wants her I-94 to match your I-94, then she should get get visa stamped again based on your new approval notice. But if you don't care about it, then she can use her current visa to re-enter and later file an extension before her I-94 expires.

[Akshay Gondkar]

Her visa is not a problem. She can use her existing visa to return. However, she need to carry your latest approval notice to show at the POE and that approval notice should be from your current employer. She cannot travel with your previous approval notice since you no longer work for that employer. So she should travel after you receive your approval for the current employer. Since she left when her H4 extension is under process, her extension will be denied. When she re-enters, it is possible that her I-94 is issued only till the visa expiry date. So if she wants her I-94 to match your I-94, then she should get get visa stamped again based on your new approval notice. But if you don't care about it, then she can use her current visa to re-enter and later file an extension before her I-94 expires.

Thanks