What are the precautions for applying for immigration status change and status adjustment in the United States?

These behaviors include: leaving the United States, not responding to the RFE from the Immigration Bureau in time, not attending the interview in time, or not fingerprinting in time, and so on. Once the application for change of identity is abandoned, even if the application is approved later, the new I-94 issued according to this approval is invalid. The applicant is still the identity before submitting this application for change of identity; If the identity before submitting the application has expired, the applicant will lose his legal identity. However, the applicant can apply for a US visa at the US consulate abroad; If the existing identity has not expired, you can submit the identity conversion application again. For the application for identity adjustment, once the application is abandoned, the applicant's application will be rejected.

Let's analyze the situation that may lead to the conversion of American identity and the abandonment of American identity adjustment application:

Leave America

First of all, applicants of ChangeofStatus (COS) and AdjustmentofStatus (AOS) should note that if they leave the United States (including short trips to Mexico and Canada), they will be deemed to have abandoned their applications while their applications are pending. For example, Mr. Wang is now a student of F- 1 and submitted an application for H- 1B, hoping to change his identity to H-1B. While his application for H- 1B is waiting, if he leaves the United States, he will be regarded as abandoning his application for H-1B. However, if the Immigration Bureau approves his application for H- 1B, Mr. Wang Can can apply for an H- 1B visa at the American consulate abroad to return to the United States. Nevertheless, we advise COS applicants not to leave the United States while their applications are pending.

For the application of status adjustment, if the applicant leaves the United States during the application period, he/she will be regarded as giving up the application, so his/her application will be rejected. However, there are two exceptions, please see below.

Exceptions to AOS

First of all, if the applicant uses AdvanceParole while waiting for AOS, he/she will not be considered as giving up the application. Re-entry permit can be applied when submitting AOS. For example, Mr. Li submitted and applied for a re-entry permit, so when his application is pending, he can apply for and obtain a re-entry permit before leaving the United States, and then return to the United States with a re-entry permit. In this case, he will not be regarded as giving up the application.

Secondly, if an applicant with H or L status leaves the United States while the AOS is awaiting trial, and does not use the US re-entry permit, he/she will not be regarded as giving up the application if the following conditions are met:

Have legal H or L status before leaving the United States;

Return to the United States as legal H- 1 or L- 1; and

After returning to the United States, I immediately returned to my original employer who worked as H or L.

Please note that in this case, the applicant should apply for and obtain an H- 1B or L- 1 visa at the American consulate abroad when returning to the United States. For example, Mr. Gupta has legal H- 1B status, and he submitted AOS, but he needs to leave the United States for India temporarily. He didn't apply for re-entry permit before he left the United States. Before he returned to the United States, he applied for an H- 1B visa at the American Consulate in India. After returning to the United States, he immediately went back to work for his original H- 1B employer. In this case, Mr. Gupta's AOS will continue to be processed, and he can continue to maintain the H- 1B status.

Inaction (in action)

Applicants should also pay attention to some requirements of the immigration bureau, and inaction will also lead to being considered as abandoning the application.

For COS, failure to reply to the RFE from the Immigration Bureau in time will lead to the rejection of its application.

For AOS, the following inaction will cause its AOS application to be rejected by the Immigration Bureau:

Failing to collect fingerprints in time

AOS application requires that the fingerprint sample of the applicant should be submitted within 120 days after the specified date of fingerprint collection. If the applicant fails to press the fingerprint on the specified date, and fails to submit the fingerprint sample within 120 days after the specified date of fingerprint printing, and fails to apply for rescheduling fingerprint printing, it will be deemed that he has abandoned his AOS application and his application will be rejected. If the applicant fails to obtain the fingerprint on the specified date due to the change of residence address, his application will be rejected because he fails to inform the Immigration Bureau of his address change in time, because failing to inform the Immigration Bureau of his address change in time will also be regarded as giving up his application.

Failure to reply to RFE in time

The time limit for replying to RFE is generally 87 days after the RFE notice is issued by the Immigration Bureau. If the applicant does not reply to RFE within 87 days, the Immigration Bureau will consider that he has abandoned his application and rejected his application.

Failure to pay the fingerprint fee

If the applicant fails to pay the fingerprint fee of $25, the Immigration Bureau will also consider that the applicant has abandoned his application and rejected his application.

Did not attend the interview on the specified date.

If the applicant did not attend the interview within the specified date, did not apply for rescheduling the interview, or did not receive the interview notice because the applicant did not notify the Immigration Bureau in time, the Immigration Bureau will also consider that the applicant has given up his application and rejected his application.

Therefore, we suggest that applicants for change of American identity and adjustment of American identity should consult experienced immigration lawyers in advance to avoid adverse results when their applications are pending.