Posting on behalf of my sister. She has an approved H1B petition but has not gotten a visa stamp yet. She just found out that her company applied her H1B under consular processing and not change of status (COS). Neither her company nor her lawyer told her about this. Her F1 visa expired in March so she has overstayed by ~ 120 days. She plans to go back this week so that she won't accrue any more days of illegal presence.
Based on my online searches, she has not overstayed more than 180 days so when she does go the consulate to get her visa stamped, she should be fine. Since the consulates are not going to issue H1B stamps till December, can she get an H4 (her husband has H1B) and then come to the US and do a change of status to H1B (her H1B is valid from Oct 2019 to Sept 2022).
She is going to talk to a lawyer tomorrow but I am looking to see if anyone has faced a situation like this and any suggestions/advice are well appreciated.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/hzs7nl/h1b_consular_processing_overstayed_visa_what_are/