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Hi guys,
I've been lurking the forum for a while and there's some pretty solid advice on the board. My problem is the following: after finishing US Masters I did OPT. I always had an OPT job on record with W2 and such with "Company A". However, the last four months of OPT I shared time with "Company B" as a 1099 contractor, that I mistakenly thought I didn't have to include in my reporting because I already had a 20 hour a week company that was on my I-20. (Yes, I understand that was dumb, but I also asked the company H1B lawyer and they said it would be fine. Wrong.)
Once OPT ended, "Company B" sponsored my H1B but the papers were received by USCIS on exactly the 60th (last) day of my post OPT grace period, which allowed me to stay on OPT Cap-Gap but without the ability to work. After an RFE the petition was approved but AFTER October 1st. When the approval arrived, they denied change of status because "the status previously accorded to the worker had expired before this petition was filed." Therefore, I left the US a week after I received the Notice of Action and am now in my home country about to do consular processing. A couple of questions:
1.) The lawyer said the Change of Status was not approved because the petition had been approved after October 1st. Does that make sense?
2.) In the DS-160, when the question says:
"Have you ever been unlawfully present, overstayed the amount of time granted by an immigration official or otherwise violated the terms of a U.S. visa?"
I assume my answer should be yes, but when it says explain should I talk about the time it took between the Notice of Action and me leaving or also mention that my last job went unreported on my OPT?
3.) Will this present a problem when I go for stamping?
Thanks for the help.
I've been lurking the forum for a while and there's some pretty solid advice on the board. My problem is the following: after finishing US Masters I did OPT. I always had an OPT job on record with W2 and such with "Company A". However, the last four months of OPT I shared time with "Company B" as a 1099 contractor, that I mistakenly thought I didn't have to include in my reporting because I already had a 20 hour a week company that was on my I-20. (Yes, I understand that was dumb, but I also asked the company H1B lawyer and they said it would be fine. Wrong.)
Once OPT ended, "Company B" sponsored my H1B but the papers were received by USCIS on exactly the 60th (last) day of my post OPT grace period, which allowed me to stay on OPT Cap-Gap but without the ability to work. After an RFE the petition was approved but AFTER October 1st. When the approval arrived, they denied change of status because "the status previously accorded to the worker had expired before this petition was filed." Therefore, I left the US a week after I received the Notice of Action and am now in my home country about to do consular processing. A couple of questions:
1.) The lawyer said the Change of Status was not approved because the petition had been approved after October 1st. Does that make sense?
2.) In the DS-160, when the question says:
"Have you ever been unlawfully present, overstayed the amount of time granted by an immigration official or otherwise violated the terms of a U.S. visa?"
I assume my answer should be yes, but when it says explain should I talk about the time it took between the Notice of Action and me leaving or also mention that my last job went unreported on my OPT?
3.) Will this present a problem when I go for stamping?
Thanks for the help.
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