Q & A September 21, 2003
Q & A 1 2
Dear Sir or Madam:
I am a lawful permanent resident of USA; I filed a petition for
my wife and my daughter in October 2000. Now I am waiting for INS’
decision on my case. In October 2002, my wife gave birth to a boy,
so I want to add my son onto the application.
Question:
Do I have to fill out another I-130 form for my son? Or do I simply
send my son’s birth certificate to the INS, enclosed the receipt
of my case?
Mr. Dan
Dear reader:
If you wish to add your newborn child onto your present I-130 petition,
you can write to the BCIS service center which is holding the petition
and request the child be added on. This may take several efforts
as the BCIS has a heavy volume of correspondence and has been known
to ignore such for periods of time. You could also wait until the
I-130 petition is approved and forwarded to the National Visa Center,
at which time you could notify the NVC of the birth of your child.
I must add a note of caution that in the event you become a U.S.
citizen, you will have to file new petitions for the two children.
That is because your wife would move into the immediate relative
category which does not allow dependent family members.
Dear Mr. Lee,
Since 1999, I’ve been working for a U.S. Company with an H-1B visa.
I also applied for a Green Card under the sponsorship of the company.
I got the I-485 application receipt in 2/02.
Questions:
- If the company goes bankruptcy or I get fired before the official
Green Card is granted to me, may I be self-employed without working
for the company?
- What criteria should I meet if I work for another company?
- How long can I process it before it is too late?
- May I apply for the EAD extension myself?
Liu,
Florida
Dear reader:
- As an ancillary benefit of filing the I-485 application, you
can request an employment authorization card by submitting form
I-765 (application for employment authorization) to the BCIS office
which has your I-485 application. With the employment authorization
card, you are allowed to work for any employer during the time
that the I-485 application is pending (cards have a validity of
one year and must be renewed). When an I-485 application is denied,
the employment authorization which has been granted as a result
of the I-485 filing is automatically rescinded.
- Under the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act,
individuals are allowed to transfer approved I-140 employment-based
immigrant visa petitions to another company so long as the I-485
has been pending at least 180 days (it is not clear that this
rule applies in concurrent I-140/I-485 filings), and the new position
is in the same or a similar occupation.
- You can request a transfer of the I-140 petition to a new employer
having a position which fits the above requirements at any time
before a final decision is made on the I-485 application.
- You can certainly apply for an employment authorization card
by yourself. The I-765 application is one of the simpler immigration
applications.
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