H1B consular processing or direct
The law firm for my company told me that they will apply for the consular processing of my H1B visa. I wanted to know which is the normal process for a person who is going from OPT to H1B? P.S: On the internet, i found direct H1B conversion does not involve any interview and it happens very fast compared to consular. Any idea?
Which company are you in?
Salesforce
Might take longer for you to apply for PERM as F1 is not dual intent and you'd have to switch to H1B before you apply.
If you have international travel plans between April(submit application) to Oct(effective date), then you have to do consular processing, otherwise change of status is more straightforward. If you have stem opt, and still have some years left, you could do cp and choose to activate H1B visa later to save 7% on tax with OPT status.
Hi, following up on this. Do you know if there's any validity period in which H1B status needs to be activated? I have 2.5 years of OPT left and I would love to be on F1 for as long as possible
As long as you activate it before your OPT expires, it's fine.
I am in the similar situation! Can we change jobs In between before we activate H1 through consular processing
It depends on a few things. If your opt will expired when your H1 formally activated, you have to do consular processing. Sometimes, if your employer has bad credit at USCIS, it may also cause the consular processing.
Is there any problem in consular processing in general?
I don’t think there is any problems. But may depends on which country you are going to do it. I had experience doing it in China and Taiwan. I got all approved.