Currently in USA on H4, H1 Lottery picked. Can I travel to India?

I am on H4 currently in USA and my application has been picked in lottery. Now

the question is Can I travel to India and come back to USA before October?
Will there be any potential problems ? my husband’s VISA ( H-1b) should be

stamped again (as we plan to travel together to India) as he got his visa

extended recently. Now if we both travel to India, anyway we need to get our

visa’s re stamped( COS) , But since my H1 has been picked it lottery will that

pose a problem on my return to USA before October?

I am in the exact (ditto) situation as yours. However I did manage to find out the below.

  1. Talk to your employer and attorney before you final your trip to India.

  2. Because you are already in US; your H1b petition would have been filed with COS. Now if you travel to India before or after your approval, Your COS would become invalid. And after your return back to US on Your H4 before october, your employer has to file for your COS with your new I-94 which will cost some $. COS approval time again depends on USCIS, like 2 to 4 months may be. Check with attorney if you can file COS with premium processing so that the joining date doesn’t get affected.

  3. Else you can do consulate stamping of H1b at India and travel back to US in H1b on Sept 30th.

Hope this helps.

P.S: Because of the above issues, I have still not yet finaled the trip :frowning:

True that , even I am confused regarding the travel. Thanks your inputs helped.

Get your H-1 upgraded to PP so that you get the decision early. Once H-1 is approved w/ COS, you can travel out of US, return on H-4 visa stamp prior to Oct 1 and still be on H-1 from Oct 1.

This is b/c H-1 COS would be approved for a future date and would still go into effect as long as you return to US prior to Oct 1.

Thanks for your response Saurabh.

Hi Vidya88,
Just curious to know if you have checked with your employer/ attorney reg trip to India.
My attorney is not responding despite my employer following up with them for their response.
Please let me know if you have any further updates on this.
Thanks in advance.

Hi,

My situation here is a little better so , I am thinking of putting a hold on my mother India travel. So regarding your question , I spoke my employer and was OK with any travel dates before october and no I did not get to talk to attorney on this. I did not push on this because situation eased out on me a little.

I strongly recommend you to talk to attorney on this and take a quick call

Thanks Sourabh . I did get some clarity on this . I better travel post october

Thanks for your response vidya88… :slight_smile: