Spouse on H1 visa after 6 years, and green card

[rajpath]

If somebody's greeen card is filed, He can manage to stay after 6 years on extensions. I have one simple question. Can the spouse stay (& working on H1 visa ) after 6 years, if Green card is pending ? What extensions she will have to apply ?

What is the minimum GC processing that should be completed for the spouse to stay and work on H1 visa or some Visa or get some Green card tag.

If there is some minimum processing acceptable for her to stay, how much time does that take for that minimum processing to complete ?

Thanks,
Rajpath

[ronline]

This is in case spouse is on h4 and primary is on h1 visa:

In case the primary applicant has reached 485 stage, then spouse can get EAD and legally start working in the USA.
In most cases when the applicant is in H1 status and has GC pending, while spouse is in H4 status, the EAD enables spouse to work.

EAD & 485 can be concurrently filed with I140 if LC is in eb2 category, for eb3 category the dates have retrogressed - so one must wait a while to file 485 -
Till then both have to maintain valid h1 / h4 status.

[rajpath]

Thanks ronline.

Spouse has a separate H1 Visa. What happens then, means whe completes 6 years ?. Can she continue to work after GC processing of Primary starts ?

As you said "In case the primary applicant has reached 485 stage, , then spouse can get EAD and legally start working in the USA. "

How much processing time does it take to reach 485 stage ?

[ronline]

A spouse can get derivative 485 benefits even if he/she has a separate H1. However this is only at the 485/EAD stage.
Till then spouse has to maintain valid legal status separately (is subject to the same 6 year limit rule) or if required can also file a gc petition thru her own employer. Primary GC process only helps at 485/EAD stage.

Note that after entering the US, each person must maintain his / her own status (Even in case of h1 or h4). Valid status is determined by valid I94.

Filing 485 is case-specific. (depends on priority dates of LC)

If u have filed LC in EB2, then u must first get an approved labor from the DOL and then u can file I140/485/EAD concurrently.

If LC is in EB3 - u first need a visa number to file for 485 - dates have retrogressed to April 2002 (priority date) - u can only do I140 because priority dates are not current for EB3 category.

All pending LCs are now at the backlog centers. Any new employment based LC from Mar 28 onwards will only be thru PERM. (All EB categories)

U can check the doleta.gov website for more details about DOL backlog reduction, etc.
U may contact an immig attorney for more help in ur case.

[rajpath]

Thanks Ronline