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Unless you are Canadian, you will need a visa stamp on your passport to enter the US. The visa is the stamp on your passport that you get a U.S consulate outside the US. You cannot get a visa in the US. The visa is a travel document and is only needed to enter the US. Once you are in the US, you can stay past the expiration of your visa as explained below.
‘Status’ means that category in which you entered the US (e.g. H-1B, L-2, B-1) and the length of time you can stay here. This may not always be the same as the visa, for example if you entered in F-1 status, using an F-1 visa, and then changed to H-1B status.
You can stay in the US as long as your status allows. Normally, this length of time is dictated by your I-94. The I-94 is the small white (or green if you used the Visa Waiver Program to enter) card that a US immigration officer put in your passport when you entered the US. If you had a change or extension of status approved after you first entered the US, the approval notice will have a new I-94 attached to the bottom. This new I-94 should show long you can stay here. However, any travel close to the approval, or after the approval, might affect how long you can stay in the US, so please ask your attorney for specific advice.
In general, you only need a new visa stamp in your passport to return to the US after the current visa has expired. If you are not traveling, you can stay in the US after the expiration of your visa provided that your status has been extended. If you travel before your visa has expired, and you have an extension approval, you should show both the old, unexpired, visa and the extension approval, to the immigration officer and you should get the extension end date on your new I-94.
If you are not traveling, you can stay in the US after a change of status without needing a new visa. After the change of status has been approved, however, you will need to get a new visa (showing the new status) before you can return to the US in the new status.
You can get a visa at a consulate in your home country or in another country to which you have close ties. Many foreign nationals also apply for visas at consulates in Canada or Mexico. Please check the website of the consulate where you want to apply, for specific procedures, document requirements, and waiting times.
Your spouse will be eligible for work authorization if s/he is in L-2 or E status. Spouses in any other dependent status are not eligible to work in that status. They may be eligible for another status, independent of yours, that would allow them to work. Children in dependent status, except at the final stage of the green card process, cannot get work authorization.
Your spouse can get work authorization by filing a Form I-765 with the USCIS. This can be done once s/he has entered the US in E/L status, and takes about 3-4 months for approval. Until the I-765 is approved, your spouse cannot work.
You can travel while the extension is pending, however there could be some complications if you return on an old, unexpired, visa after the extension has been approved. If you don't show the extension approval notice (maybe because you didn't know the case was approved before you returned), you will get just the old expiration date on your new I-94. This will then be the operative end date, not the extension date. This is because CIS has a "last action" rule, whereby the last status they give you is what governs. In this situation, the last action would be your admission until the visa and date.
If you travel before your visa has expired, and you have an extension approval, you should show both the old, unexpired, visa and the extension approval, to the immigration officer and you should get the extension end date on your new I-94.
No, or not without abandoning the change of status. Any travel while a change of status is pending is deemed to abandon the change request. Your new status will be approved, however you will not automatically become the new status. You would need to leave the US, get a visa for the new status at a consulate, and return in the new status.
7. What is the H-1B cap?
“H-1B cap” refers to the limit on the number of new H-1Bs that can be approved each fiscal year by USCIS. The fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 of the following year. The cap on the number of H-1Bs that can be approved each year is 65,000, plus an extra 20,000 for people with US Master’s degrees or higher. Of the 65,000, 6.800 are reserved to people from Chile and Singapore.
