I am a Pakistani citizen working in the U.S. under H1-B status. I came here as a student on an F-1 visa and changed my status to H1-B after I got my job offer. I was approved for Canadian Immigration a couple of months ago. I understand that if I land in Canada as an immigrant I would no longer require a U.S. visa. If I get married in Pakistan and want to bring my wife directly to the U.S. under H-4 status, would she be able to apply for H-4 visa from Pakistan as a Pakistani citizen or does she need to be a Canadian resident first? Is there a way to get H-4 approval from America before applying for the actual visa in Pakistan? The U.S. in Pakistan requires a copy of the actual visa stamp of the H1-B bearer before they will issue an H-4 visa. I don't know what the law is for the spouse of a visa-exempt individual.

I you become a landed immigrant, you will be visa-exempt pursuant to 8 CFR §§212.1(a). This is because Pakistan is considered to be part of the British Commonwealth.

Your future wife will clearly not need to be a landed immigrant of Canada to obtain an H-4 visa. Once you are married, she should be able to apply for an H-4 at her local consulate by showing your Canadian Record of Landing (to show why you do not have an H-1B visa), your last I-797 approval notice for H-1B status, your current I-94 showing your H-1B status, and your marriage certificate. The consulate cannot demand to see your H-1B visa if you are not legally required to have one. However, you will be expected to prove that you are visa-exempt.

Your wife will not be able to obtain approval for an H-4 before going to the consulate since there is no petition requirement for the H-4 category. She must seek an H-4 visa from the consulate. Even if it were possible, approval of a petition by the INS would not guarantee visa issuance by a consulate.

If you sponsor your spouse for Canadian immigration (as the spouse of a landed immigrant), when she receives her Record of Landing she will also be visa-exempt. She could then cross the Canadian border into the U.S. and seek H-4 status at the border as a visa-exempt person. However, this would take time and is not necessary.

I, a citizen of Bermuda, have been married to a U.S. citizen (by birth) for almost 2 years.  We both live and work in Bermuda.  She still files her U.S. Federal Income Tax Returns, although she pays no taxes.  We were thinking of moving back to the US.  If her affidavit of support must be from a U.S. citizen who is domiciled in the US, what do we do about that, since we live in Bermuda?

Nothing prevents your U.S. citizen spouse from filing the family-based petition on you behalf right now, since the domicile requirement relates to the affidavit of support rather than the eligibility to file the petition. However, she will be required to establish domicile in the U.S. before the affidavit is submitted.

The Department of State has indicated that, in cases where the sponsor has clearly not maintained a domicile in the U.S., the question becomes when the sponsor can be deemed to have re-established U.S. residence. To do this, the sponsor must have taken a credible combination of steps to make the U.S. his immediate principal place of abode.

Such steps might include finding U.S. employment, locating a place to live, registering children in U.S. schools and other indices of residence. The sponsor should also have made other arrangements to relinquish residence in the third country. It is not necessary for the sponsor to precede the sponsored family members to the U.S. to re-establish residence and domicile provided that the sponsor has taken the type of concrete steps outlined above. A sponsored immigrant may not enter the United States prior to the sponsor's return to take up residence. He or she must either travel to the United States with the sponsor or at some date after the sponsor's entry into the U.S.

In summary, while your spouse must take steps to show she has re-established her domicile in the U.S. in advance of your immigration interview, she does not have to be physically present in the U.S. until you enter the U.S.

I was approved to change my status from F-1 optional practical training (OPT) to lawful permanent residence (LPR) before my OPT expired. When I submitted my I-485, I also sent out my I-765 application for an employment authorization document (EAD). In your August issue, you said that a person can continue to work for up to 240 days, if he/she files his/her H1-b renew before the old H1-b expires. I sent my application to Texas INS center. I have been waiting for nearly 90 days for my EAD. My PT has expired and there seems no sign that I will receive my EAD soon. Can I go back to work, because I filed I-765 before my PT expired?

You have used the wrong terminology, but I believe you are saying that you were in F-1 status doing optional practical training, your petition for permanent residence was later approved, then you filed for adjustment of status and an employment authorization document as a pending adjustment applicant.

F-1 students in optional practical training are NOT entitled to an automatic 240-day extension pending adjudication, even if they are seeking an extension of their present status to work for the same employer. You should never simply assume that information given to someone else will be applicable to your case.

In any event, even if F-1 students were entitled to this benefit, you would not be entitled to it. You are not seeking an extension of your existing work authorization; you are seeking a completely new work authorization document based on the fact that you are a pending adjustment applicant. This is NOT an extension of your existing status. Until you have an EAD issued to you as a pending adjustment applicant, you cannot work.