Urgent help required. Which is better -- H4 or F1 Visa ?

[BerlinKhan]

Hello everyone,,

I work for one of the top MNC of India. My company sponsored H1B for me and the visa is stamped 2 weeks ago. My wife has not attended any Visa interview yet. My wife is moving company los angeles working for one of top USA based software product company from past 4 years and has an excellent academic/professinal background. In past 6 months, my wife wrote GRE, TOEFL and applied for 4 universities near to my work location at USA. Right now we both are in India and I will be travelling to USA in the 1st week of December 2013 to join my onsite team. My wife is interested to pursue MS at USA (for Spring) and would like to join me in January 2014.

Now I am confused whether to let my wife come to USA on F1 or H4 ? Which one would be better ?

I do not know the advantages/disadvantages I would have, if my wife comes on H4, related to tax savings on my salary etc....

Similarly I do not know the advantages/disadvantages my wife would have, if she comes on H4 ?

Please share your opinion/suggestion/experince.

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,
Berlin..

[meghagpt]

If your wife is having plans to work further, she would not be able to do that on H4. But if she comes on F1 she can eventually work. It depends upon what her future goals are.

[SOUTHORANGE]

On H4, she will pay IN-STATE TUITION.
ON F-1 she will pay INTERNATIONAL TUITION which is always higher.

On F-1, once she completes her M.S she is eligible to apply OPT.
On H4, she is not eligible for OPT unless the company you work for has a successful I-140 petition on your behalf.

If she chooses F-1, she should be ready to answer the Consular why she did not opt for H4 and vice-versa.

She could apply H4 then midway COS to F-1 [this helps her benefit from cheaper tuition as an H4 and then change to F-1 and benefit from F-1. Although it is becoming arduous to change H4 to F-1. You guys need to weight all options.

[PromptAttestation]

I'm excited to know about how your wife's interview went at that time?