Immigration Site

Hello Everyone,

My mother is the primary beneficiary of a GC sponsorship through her sister and I am also being sponsored being the child. I am currently working in the States on OPT and my company has sponsored my H-1 so I should be ready to give the interview with a dual intent visa with my mother sometime in June.

My question is, after the interview and if everything goes okay, does my mother need to immigrate back with me, i.e should she be present with me at the port of entry since Im not a direct beneficiary? I ask this because, I will get only about 2 weeks off from work and my mother probably wont immigrate for about a month after.

Secondly, this is hypothetical and secondary to the case, but if for some reason, I dont manage to get my H1 approved on time, and Im still on F1/OPT status, if I am correct in my understanding, I wont be able to go to the interview since F1 is considered non-immigrant status correct? So in that case, if my OPT expires in July 2011, and my interview date is after that would I be able to go to the interview without worries, since I would not be on a non-immigrant visa anymore?

I really appreciate your time and thank you in advance!

Why do you expect the interview to be in June? Has the consulate given your mother a letter?

She needs to enter the US with the immigrant visa before you or with you. You might need to spend more than 2 weeks in your country to complete all the formalities and get back your passport, even if your mother is ready to immigrate as soon as she gets her passport back. So if I were you, instead of pursuing an immigrant visa I would stay in the US and file an I-485. However, in order to file the I-485 I believe you must wait for one of the following events to occur (Im not sure which one):

- your mothers immigrant visa is approved at the consulate
- your mother enters the US with the immigrant visa

I presume youve done the CSPA calculation to confirm that you havent aged out of eligibility as a derivative. Make sure to prepare a cover letter for the consulate explaining your CSPA calculation, because some consulates are not good at recognizing your CSPA eligibility if you dont demonstrate it clearly to them.

Secondly, this is hypothetical and secondary to the case, but if for some reason, I dont manage to get my H1 approved on time, and Im still on F1/OPT status, if I am correct in my understanding, I wont be able to go to the interview since F1 is considered non-immigrant status correct? For immigrant visa interviews at the consulate, the immigration status you had in the US doesnt matter, as long as youve maintained some kind of legal status throughout and dont have a particular restriction such as the J-1 2-year requirement.

Your H1B is irrelevant to this situation, except that if you leave the US youre likely to be unable to reenter using your F1 visa (due to immigrant intent), but you can reenter with the H1B visa.

If you obtain an immigrant visa at the consulate, H1B vs. F1 becomes moot, because both will be canceled and the immigrant visa is what youll use to reenter the US.

Hi Jackolantern,

Thank you for the quick response. We currently just sent out requested documents that were asked of us by the NVC for package 3. I think the next package is where they ask for medical, biometric appointments and set the interview date. I just assumed June as a good time period for the interview based on work etc. ( i am unsure if we will get the chance to select the date ourselves or not)

My H1 will probably take another 2 months and I would like to have that before I leave the country. I was considering AOS but sometime this summer, my Dad is getting remarried and that is the reason I wanted to get the consular processing done around the same time. It is good to know that h1/f1 wont affect the status of my interview and that it would get cancelled out when I get the immigrant visa.

I guess the only remaining issue is that 2 weeks timeframe I have. I havent told anyone at work about the family based greencard as yet. I am Indian by nationality but since my mother is working in U.A.E, we had our interview location changed to Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. I was hoping two weeks would be sufficient to go for the interview and get my passport back. Is there a thread monitoring time frame from interview to getting passport with the approval? or would you be able to shed some light on it?

And once again thanks for all the responses.