H4 Visa for Dependants

One of the advantages of the H-1B visa route is that your dependants are also eligible to join you in the U.s. under the H4 visa. The post-obit guide looks at the H4 visa for dependants, including who can apply and what H4 visa holders are permitted to do in the US.

What is the H4 visa?

The H4 visa is a nonimmigrant visa issued by the United states Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to the spouse and children of H1B visa holders who desire to accompany the H-visa holder to the United States.

The H1B visa holder is an individual who has been granted permission to travel to the US to work in a speciality occupation, ie; a professional working in a job part that requires theoretical/technical expertise or academic qualification, at degree level or equivalent, and for whom they have a US sponsor.

Who is eligible for an H4 visa?

The USCIS will let immediate family members of H-visa holders, including the H1B visa, to obtain a H4 visa to lawfully come up and stay in the US with their spouse or parent.

Firsthand family members include the spouse or any children under the age of 21 of the H-visa holder. Accordingly, to be eligible to apply for the H4 visa, you have to encounter either ane of the following conditions:

  • Be the spouse of a H-visa holder. This includes the H1B, H1B1, H2A, H2B or H3 visas.
  • Exist the child, under the historic period of 21 years old, of an approved H-visa holder. The children of a H-visa holder who are over 21 will not be eligible to utilize for the H4 visa.

Family members may alternatively be admitted in other nonimmigrant categories for which they authorize, for example, the F1 category for spouses or children who are coming to study, or the H1B category for a spouse whose employer has also obtained approval of an H1B visa petition to utilize the spouse.

How to utilize for an H4 visa

When applying for an H4 visa, typically you will need to take the following steps:

  • Apply online using Form DS-160. When you start your H4 online visa awarding, yous will need to print the barcode confirmation page to take with you to interview.
  • Pay the applicable H4 visa fee. Yous should save your fee receipt every bit you will require this later. Currently, the application fee for an H4 visa is $190.
  • Schedule a visa interview engagement with your local US Diplomatic mission or consulate. Having scheduled your interview, you will go a letter of the alphabet of confirmation, which once more yous will need to retain.
  • Submit your H4 visa documents. In improver to form DS-160, you will be required to provide other documents when applying for an H4 visa, including a wedlock or nascency document, a copy of your spouse'southward/parent'due south H-type visa, together with their I-129 form, I-797 form and the Labor Certification Awarding.
  • Attend the visa interview. During interview, you volition exist asked detailed questions to decide, in particular, whether or not your relationship with the H-visa holder is 18-carat.
  • Await a decision. The interviewing officer may be able to determine immediately your eligibility for an H4 visa. Nonetheless, further documentation may be required.
  • Await your visa. If your application for an H4 visa is successful, you will still need to wait for your visa to exist processed and returned to y'all. You lot can bank check your visa condition on the website of the US Embassy where you are applying past entering your application number. The visa processing times can vary depending on the land from which y'all utilize.
  • Book your ticket to the U.s.a.. Y'all should only make travel plans once y'all are in receipt of your H4 visa. Please also be enlightened that the grant of a visa does not guarantee entry into the United States. That determination is left with the port of entry officers and the Section of Homeland Security on your arrival in the country.

Please note, if you are already within the Us, yous can submit your H4 visa application through the USCIS past filing Form I-539 for change of condition.

What volition I be asked during my H4 visa interview?

You will exist asked a number of questions during your H4 visa interview, not to the lowest degree in relation to your marital status and/or your dependency on the primary visa holder. With so much riding on this interview, it is important to be prepared.

Although there is no prepare construction or definitive list of questions, yous are likely to be asked questions in relation to the following matters:

  • Why do you need an H4 visa?
  • What practice you program to do in the United states of america?
  • Who practice you lot plan on living with whilst y'all are at that place?
  • Who volition financially support you in the US?
  • How long accept y'all been married?
  • When and how did you meet your spouse?
  • Is your marriage registered?
  • What is your spouse's birthday?
  • Who is your spouse'due south employer?
  • What kind of piece of work does your spouse do?
  • Who is sponsoring your spouse's H-visa?
  • What will you practise later on your H4 visa has expired?

How long tin I stay in the US for under an H4 visa?

When you apply for an H4 visa, you will have to submit your spouse's or parent'due south I-797 form. This is a Notice of Action, issued as a result of an awarding or a petition submitted to the USCIS for a H1B or other H-visa.

The I-797 grade will state the dates that the visa of your spouse or parent is valid from and until. An H4 visa holder volition be admitted to the US for the duration of the primary H-visa validity.

As such, if your spouse or parent has a visa that is valid for 3 years, your H4 visa will also be valid for 3 years. Notwithstanding, you may be eligible to stay for longer, using Form I-539, in the event that the chief H-visa holder applies for an extension to remain in the United States.

What does the H4 visa allow?

H-4 visa holders are permitted to stay in the US for every bit long as their spouse holds a valid H1-B visa. During their stay, H-4 visa holds can nourish school, apply for a driving license, open a US banking concern account and apply for employment authorization. To apply for permission to work, H-four visa holders can file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authority, provided their H-1B visa spouse:

  • Is the principal casher of an approved Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker; or
  • Has been granted H-1B status under sections 106(a) and (b) of the American Competitiveness in the Xx-first Century Human action of 2000 as amended by the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Human activity (AC21).

H4 visa holders can also apply to change their immigration status, such as applying for their ain H1-B visa where they meet the visa requirements.

This commodity does non constitute direct legal communication and is for advisory purposes only.