H4 EAD case approved while I traveled abroad in H1B status and re-entered on H1B visa

[freeocean]

Hi everyone,

I have a major question/concern that I hope someone can help me understand. I was on H1B status valid till September 2019. My husband had his I-140 approved in the spring of 2017. I decided to apply for H4 EAD in June 2017 because I wanted to gain some independence with my employment. However, I had a family emergency in early October that I had to travel back home. My H4 EAD cases, including the I-539 change of status and I-765 employment authorization, were both still pending at that time and I understood that I would forfeit the pending cases once I travel abroad, which I was fine with because I had no choice (I tried to ask USCIS to expedite my case but had no luck after multiple attempts). So on October 10, 2017 I left the US and spent four weeks back in my home country, during which I interviewed for a new H1B visa at the US embassy. I returned to the US on my new H1B visa on November 2, 2017 without any issue. HOWEVER, when I got home I saw my new EAD card and the approval notices of my I-539 and I-765 applications in the mailbox... Looked like my cases were approved on the same day I left the US, October 10th, and the mails were sent to me on October 11th, which is why I didn't receive them in time.

So my question is, am I in big trouble with my status, as I entered the US with an H1B visa while my legal status has already changed to H4, which I was not aware of? Is there going to be any major issues down the road in the green card process?

Thanks very much!

Renee

[scientist2016]

Nope no problem. If you had stayed in the US your status would have switched to H4. But now that you came back on H1, your status is H1. If you now want to switch over to H4, you would have to do a COS. Alternate way is go outside the US, get a H4 visa stamp and then come back. The advantage of this second route is the flexibility viz., in the future whenever you travel outside, you can choose to enter back using either H1 or H4. Putting it in another way, whenever you want to switch your status in the future, you can just travel outside and come back with the status you want rather than file COS and spend time and money each time on COS.