How to apply for EAD in US/Other EAD Questions

Originally Posted by golda

Hi All
If I want to apply for a green card now.How long will it take for EAD to come?..Any suggestions..

Hi
You read my mind... pl let me know in case you get any PM.

Hi Ladies,

I'm assuming that you two fall under the India category (if you were born in some other country, then you would come in that country's quota regardless of your citizenship).

If you want to apply for your green card now, that means you would need to file for your labor certificate first. Under PERM, that takes a weeks/months...Once that comes, you can file for the second stage I-140.

For the third and last stage of the green card, I-485, you need to have a priority date that is current. Priority date is the date you filed your labor certificate. So if you file your LC on June 15th, 2008, your PD is 6/15/2008.

By 'current', it is meant that in the USCIS monthly bulletin, the category of visa (under which you filed e.g. EB1, EB2, EB3 etc) should be "C" under country India.

Right now the dates are not current. For India EB3, USCIS is looking at applications that have a PD of April, 2001. For India EB2, USCIS is looking at applications that had a PD of 2004.

It is only AFTER you apply for I-485, that you can apply for your EAD (which takes about 3-6 months to come).

So looking at all this, you can make a guess about how long it will take for your EAD to come...

not good news I know...*sigh*

Regards,
Aarushi

Hi Thanks for the information

Hi,

my spouse is going to apply green card
1..Is perm process better than the regular one..?..
2.How long will it take to get EAD under the regular process?..under EB3 or EB2 category..
3.Anybody have timeframe of getting ead?plz tell me when did u apply for greencard and u got EAD?.
4.During green card process should we not visit india?..Plz reply...

hey
But EAD is valid for a year right, we need to renew it, i think we need to do the renewal 4 mos bfr..

Hi,

I'm looking for some answers for my wife's visa issues. I'm on H1B (valid until 2010) and she is on OPT (Valid until Dec 20 2008. F-1 visa expired May 200. My PERM labor is in process and we hope to file for I 140 and I 485 and EAD concurrently by September/ October 2008. My lawyer says that we can file concurrently because my wife's country of birth is in Europe.

Now the questions:

1. Is it okay for my wife to apply for EAD while on OPT with expired F-1 visa? Is there a requirement that wife has to be on H-4 to apply for EAD based on husband's GC proapplication?

2. EAD approval takes 3-4 months on average (forum knowledge.com.) So if she doesn't recieve her EAD approval by December 2008 (Dec 20 2008 her OPT expires) she will be out of status. Should we apply for H-4 so that she doesn't become out-of-status?

3. We expect that her EAD approval will come by Jan/ Feb 2009. There is a 2 month gap provision that foreign nationals sometimes use to change their status (Yes you guessed it forum knowledge.com.). Is it a safe bet to avoid getting her on H-4 and use the 2 month gap period?

4. How much does applying for H-4 cost? I'm simply expecting a range of sorts.

Thanks,

Abhishek

Hi Abhishek,

I think the best person to answer your first 3 questions would be an immigration lawyer. This is because your case has too many technical details that only a person well versed in the legal intricacies of the immigration system is best equipped to answer.

I don't think your wife needs to be on H4 for you to apply for an EAD on her behalf...but again it would be best to confirm with a lawyer.

Regards,
Aarushi

Thanks for the reply Arushi.

Any more insights?

Abhishek

Hello Abhishek,
As far as I know this is what I think

1: OPT is not a visa status. Even if your wife is on OPT she is actually on “F-1 visa status”.
As far as I know there is no expiry for F-1 visa status. If you see on her I-94 then it should say “D/S” (duration of study).
2: If her OPT expires then she can register for zero/one credit hour at her university to maintain her F-1 visa status.

This is what my husband did 8 yrs ago when he came to do his Masters. Rules might have changed since then. You might be better off checking this with an immigration attorney
Hoep this helps

Hi

What are the advantages and disadvantages of working with EAD?