I am currently in India, and the local news paper reported some scary changes. It appears if H1 visa extension is not renewed, immigrants cannot simply go back where they came from. They will be out of status, and they will be issued NTA (notice to appear) before immigration court, which could be several months out. They have to wait it out until their court date in illegal status. They could possibly move the court for permission to leave, but that court date could also be out several months. This totally doesn't make sense to me. I hope I didn't understand correctly. Can anyone explain what the new proposed changes are? Have they been implemented already?
Thanks Amazon, that makes so much more sense. Obviously, the sensationalist media did not clarify that you could just file voluntary departure notice and leave while still legal. Whew! What a relief! Is this a new rule? Or had it always been this way? Why is the media reporting it now?
We need better NAT rule
Awesome. That should hopefully reduce the extent to which Indians flood the h1b system with zillions of bullshit applications just to win the lottery and improve the odds for normal applicants.
It is not awesome. Imagine your company attorney (e.g. Fragomen) submits your green card application and forgets to submit a required document or makes some mistake in the application. It won’t be your fault, but your application could get straight out denied without RFE and you could be out of status
If you receive an NTA you don't need to wait around for the date on the NTA, you can have a lawyer file a voluntary departure with the court and leave sooner, while you are still in status. You actually have to do that though, not just leave without filing something, or there is a chance the court won't find out you have left and in that case the judge might issue a removal order to have you deported, thinking you're still present. If they do that it would be a big pain later to prove the removal order was issued in error and that could jeopardize your ability to return to the US.
The key thing here is while you’re still in status. If a h1 denial comes after the current h1 has expired, you’re technically out of status at that point.
That's true regardless, just file the voluntary departure and leave. The key is to do it before a removal order is issued.