Travel between F1 status to H1

Hello,

I will be graduating in May 2015, and my employer would be applying for my H1 on 1st April 2015. I have an approved OPT (valid till 2016) and have applied for EAD.

a) If my H1 is rejected - I am assuming I can return back on F1, and continue work on OPT, is that correct?

b) If my H1 is approved, can I still return back to US on F1 visa in July’15 without stamping?

Thanks !

  1. Well, you can work on OPT with EAD once you have the EAD document in hand until the valid date on it, this has nothing to do with your H1B application. If your H1B is applied as Change of Status from F1 to H1B, your status will be changed based on the start date given my employer, which would be October 1st.

  2. If you travel outside of US and re-enter, you will need a valid visa stamping on your passport to re-enter. Technically, if you leave US in July, you will have to re-enter US on F1 visa as your H1B will not be effect until October 1st. So, you will need a valid F1 visa stamping on your passport. Also, if your H1B was applied with COS ( change of status), that COS will be invalidated and you will need to apply for COS again or go out of the country and get H1B stamping done to work from October 1st in US.