ndaudi07

Dear all,

I have been working at a consulting firm in Boston since June 2010, and initially had been working on my OPT after completing my Undergraduate degree on an F1 Student visa from Brandeis University. My company applied for my H1-B visa as soon as I graduated, and I was approved for the status in the fall, effective November 1, 2010, valid till October 31, 2013. I left a couple weeks ago to come to London to get my visa stamp, and have been put in administrative processing. I was given my passport though, so I was told I was free to travel till they requested my passport from me. As we all know, admin processing is a tricky situation and one can never know when exactly the passport will be requested.

This is very frustrating as all this happened right in the middle of my work and life back in the US. I was hoping that it would be as simple as coming over to London, getting my stamp in the 5-7 days they say it takes to process, and then heading back after a nice vacation with the family.

Now that I am stuck here, I wanted to get some information about returning to the US while my case is pending as a tourist (since UK nationals can enter the US under the Visa Waiver Programme). In this case, all I would need to do is get ESTA clearance before flying. However, is this situation legal? Have any folks done this themselves before? I have an apartment there, I have bills to pay, a car to take care of, things to do etc. This way, when my passport is requested, I could fly back to UK, wait for the stamp, and then fly back into the US. Any info on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, and looking forward to some responses!

ian-mstm

I'm confused... if your visa is valid until 10/31/13 why did you need to get a stamp at all?


Normally, yes... but you have a valid visa in your passport. I'm not sure how that changes things.


If you were able to enter the US on the VWP, you couldn't work at all. You couldn't enter the US as a visitor and resume your H-1B duties.


At any given moment, you can be in the US on only one status... in your case, either as a visitor (with all the inherent restrictions that places on you) or in H-1B status.

Ian

discoviking

In reading this, it sounds to me like he the company applied for adjustment of status to H1-B, and he has an I-797 only. Then he left the US and needs a visa to re-enter - and ended up in Administrative processing.

We had the same scenario with one of my colleagues from India. He ended up being stuck there for an additional 3 weeks while the company immigration lawyer sorted it out. (The issue was with a document).

Don't know why OP ended up in AP, or if anything can be done to resolve his situation.

lifehouse51

SOunds to me that the petition to USCIS for H1-B was approved (I-129?), and he chose to go for applying for a visa in London instead of changing status from F-1 to H1-B, and got into administrative processing while at the London U.S. embassy.

You can certainly apply for ESTA, but because something triggered you into admin processing for your visa, the same red flag (Similar name to a person on the watch list, etc, who knows??), may give you a ESTA denial. The only way to know is to apply and see what happens.

With ESTA approval, it should be fine to travel to the U.S. as a tourist even with the H1-B under admin processing, but you may get additional questions about the purposes of your visit and you have to make it clear that you won't be working during the visit. Also, back-to-back long VWP visits are not recommended. It's possible that the admin processing can take a long time, so you may want to consider temporarily relocating back to the UK instead.

ndaudi07

Thanks for the responses!

It has now been 3 weeks since my interview at the consulate in London, and still no response. I wrote to a US congressman explaining my situation, following on from an e-mail that my frustrated friend in the US sent to the local Congressman's office. He got a response, and the office asked me to send them some information and they would follow up on it.

Anybody tried anything similar? Please share any experiences/recommendations given this situation. I have been ready many blogs/forums about admin processing, and the comments in general don't seem to be too positive. Most comments suggest contacting the consulate is not possible before the 60 day mark. Very frustrating. I wonder what other people have done in this situation where they have been working for a while in the US, and came here to get the stamp and then got stuck. What are you supposed to do about your bills (rent, phone bills, car, etc etc etc)?

Thanks!

cyrus1341

Any update on your situation??

Hope it has now been sorted out for you but was wondering if you did travel on the Visa Waver whilst waiting??

ndaudi07

No updates yet unfortunately. I haven't yet traveled on the VWP as if I enter the US on that status, I won't be able to work. As of now, I am working remotely for my employers, so that way at least I can get paid. However, I am not sure how much longer I can continue to work remotely just due to the nature of the projects - I may be considering traveling back to sort out my apartment, car and other such things as I wait.

How long has it been for you?

cyrus1341

Sorry to hear that and hope it gets sorted for you ASAP!!!

I only had my interview a few days ego but as there is no way of knowing how long the wait can be it makes you PANIC!

Once again best of luck and hope you hear the good news soon!

ndaudi07

Thank you!

I hope the wait is not long for you either.

It is really very frustrating, especially since USCIS approves the H1B status after performing various background checks and so on. Why then must people be subject to such lengthy additional processing for reentry into the US? It beats me. They really should perform such checks on those people from the beginning, while approving the initial application. There is no logic in making perfectly hard working, tax paying members of society wait endlessly to resume their lives. At least if there was a guaranteed fixed time frame, one would enter the whole situation knowingly.

Good luck with your status - and keep me posted if you do decide to travel under VWP. Would love to hear how that works from someone actually doing it.

Cheers!

cyrus1341

Couldnt agree more. As we both know the whole H1B Petition is long and tedious enough so it would be good to do all checks and once you have been approved simply stamp the Passport!!!

I will keep you posted and please do the same and once again good luck!!

crg

Unless you have a foreign residence, you are inadmissible as a visitor under the VWP or otherwise. Also, working remotely for pay may be better than being admitted as a visitor and not being able to work at all.

Be sure to disclose the visa denial on the ESTA if you choose to try the VWP. Your visa application is recorded as a visa denial unless/until it is cleared through admin processing and approved.

krsnalila

Hello. I wanted to follow up on these posts. Could you let me know the outcome of your visa case and if you were approved after it went through administrative processing. I'm finding myself in the same situation and wanted to understand how long you ended up waiting. I was also left pondering about traveling on the VWP in the meantime, however after reading this forum and other lawyers advices, it doesn't seem like it's a good plan.

I've finding this situation extremely difficult and upsetting to deal with so any further details you have would be really helpful.

When I called the embassy and asked them about returning on the VWP they said it was fine to do to, as long as I made it clear at the port that I was simply coming back as a tourist.

Hope to hear from anyone on this.

ian-mstm

The information and advice in this thread is almost a year old. Each post is date stamped.

It would be more productive if you simply started your own thread and included details of your case. That way, members could give you current information based on your circumstances.

Ian

krsnalila

Will do - thanks!