Elvira

Hello, newby here (finally managed to post after I found the activation thingy in the 'BULK' folder...) I hope you'll bear with my rather long first post

I read Honeymommy's thread on her dreadful experience with great interest. Just to remind you, here is the gist:
"I have lived in USA california for 7 years with hubby and 4 kids ages 12,10,8,8. We are all british citizens. Hubby was taken on by a US company and they are sponsoring for GC but there was a problem over qualifications in job description with INS so the process has been delayed overly so... Visa renewal was started Nov last yr but there is a backlog so laywer did premier processing and whoever did the extension made a mistake and denied the extension. An appeal has been put forward but due to INS backlog we may not hear in time to stay legal here." (They ended up having to leave!!)

I could imagine us being in the same situation a couple of years from now, and I have also read of a similar case on the Immigration forum on About.com. So I was wondering: how common are such cases? What sort of circumstances lead to 6 years on H1B not being long enough to sort out any Green Card glitches? And how can they (threaten to) deport people if it is THEIR inefficiency/mistakes and backlog which are causing the delay?

Also, if Honeymommy could clarify what led to all this I would be extremely grateful (eg what mistakes were made and how could these have been avoided). FWIW, I really feel for you and greatly admire the stoicism and courage with which you battled through all this!

FYI, we are H1B + H4s (my husband is a university prof), six months into our 2nd H1B period (been here since September 2001). University filed the permanent residency bumpf last April. Apart from a RFE (to which we responded about 6 weeks ago) we have heard nothing. University says there is nothing else they can do ('you just have to wait'...).

I have been reading as many back posts as I could find that seemed relevant but still have a lot of other questions - but I guess this will do for now.

Thanks everyone!

dixiebug

I am a British University Prof who has been working on H1Bs for the past 6 years. My Uni started the GC process about 2 years ago. The main delay was in getting the Labor Certification (even with RIR). My I-140 approval eventually came through in July last year, and I am now close to the end of Consular Processing (CP).

As soon as your I-140 is approved, you will remain in status until the Visa is issued, especially if you choose AOS in the US (takes 2 - 3 years) rather than CP (takes around 6 - 7 months). If the people at your Uni are anywhere near as good as those at mine, I'm sure you'll be fine.

Elvira

Thank you for your reply. My I ask one more question? Do you have any dependents, i.e. H4? If so, at what point in this whole process were they allowed to work? After 3.5 years of inactivity I feel I'm slowly going insane...

HappyHammer

I have been in the States since 1996. (Next year will be out 10th) We still don't have a Green Card.
Mine is a tale of woe, and to cut a long story short, rather than use my sponsors attorney, I hired my own. It turns out my labor certfication was restarted in 1997, 1999 and 2001 - They didn't even tell me. The reasons they restarted are dubious, and probably linked to their needing to keep me handcuffed to them. The Sponsors have ultimate power over your petition. In fact one of their managers once said to me "Don't play ball with us, and we can make things very difficult for you". Thankfully once I had my own attorney (I ofcourse not paid all the legal bills), I actually knew what was going on. Well I am now fast approaching my 3rd extension, and still no Green Card in site.
Have written to my senator. No reply yet, although I hear sometimes it takes them a month to get back to you.
BTW my wife was able to work after I140 was approved, and she got an Employment Authorization Card. I140 wont clear until your Labor is approved.
As it was 7 years between her coming here on an H4, and finally being able to work, we started a family and she was a traditional stay at home mom.
She's been my inspiration through this, never complained, never said a bad word, even though we know I was really unlucky in being initiall sponsored by a company whose only real agenda was to make money out of me.
Hopefully we are now close to our AOS, we have been here so long, and done everything right. I'm still very nervous, and worried.
Just make sure you are kept informed of everything, get proof of all the filings the attorney does. Make sure you have a case number, and keep a log of everything.
Good Luck !!!!