Pass A Grille Beach, FL Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

Thanks for your inquiry. The answer is that you can file for the J-1 foreign residency waiver and the H-1B at the same time, however the process is much more complicated than telling you that you can file both applications at the same time. The H-1B visa system is limited by the number of new "cap subject" visas that are available every government fiscal year. H-1B visas for Fiscal Year 2013 (FY 2013) are now available but these visas cannot be used until October 1, 2012. What this means is that even if you are lucky enough to obtain a "cap subject" H-1B for FY 2013, the start date for the work associated with this visa is no earlier than October 1, 2012. So this means that you must maintain lawful nonimmigrant status until that time if you are looking at some point to change status form the J-1 to an H-1B. Now to complicate this even more, you are ineligible to apply for change status until you have obtained the J-1 foreign residency requirement waiver. So you may "capture" a "cap subject" FY 2013 H-1B visa and NOT be in a position to use it in the US because you have not yet obtained the J-1 waiver. The law is clear that any foreign national who is subject to the foreign residency requirement is NOT eligible for consideration of an application for change of status from a J-1 to an H-1B. My recommendation is that you consult with an attorney who can provide you the guidance that this work requires. What I would suggest is that you work both ends of this at the same time. File the H-1B to capture the FY 2013 cap subject visa number and then if you are able to obtain the J-1 visa waiver, you may be able to successfully change status from J-1 to H-1B in the US without having to leave. But this carries with it a lot of presumptions and a number of stars that must align so that all of this works correctly and within the time frame that you have available. This is certainly a workable case, but you will go all sorts of nowhere if you put the wrong legal service provider to work on it. This case calls for a careful coordination of efforts and someone who understands the complicated procedures that will be required to make this work. Good luck.

I do not believe that there is any visa status that would meet your goal of having your sister remain in the US until her final days. Even if you are a US citizen and petition for her, the period of time for her to immigrate is is approximately 10 years, and during that period, U.S.C.I S. will not allow her to stay legally. Perhaps if your sister's end is soon approaching, the agency may be sympathetic and allow her extensions of her visiting visa, but if she is in fairly good health with no immediate end in sight, there would not appear to be anything within the law to allow her to stay until her final days.  

We don't revoke citizenship for post-naturalization activities.  Revoking citizenship currently requires proving that there was some misrepresentation in the immigration or naturalization process prior to the benefit being confered.   To allow actions after you become a citizen to put your status at risk creates a class of citizens that do not have the same rights as those who are born here.  There are many policy implications to changing our current citizenship laws.  Stripping someone of their citizenship gains the state no particular advantage since we want to prosecute and punish offenders in our own jurisdiction anyway.