In a Policy Memorandum dated November 11, 2013, USCIS has stated that time spent in the U.S. in H-4 status does not count against future time limits in H-2 or H-3 status.<\/p>\n
As background, a foreign national spouse in the U.S. in H-4 status is authorized to stay in the U.S. only so long as the principal alien.\u00a0 There are time limits on most nonimmigrant stays in the U.S.\u00a0 If the foreign national dependent spouse later seeks to be re-classified as a principal alien in certain non-immigrant classifications, the question remains whether previous time in dependent H-4 status will count against future time limits as a principal alien. In December, 2006, USCIS determined that time in H-4 status spent by a spouse of an H-1B nonimmigrant does not count toward future time limits if the dependent spouse seeks to become a principal alien in H-1B status, nor does time spent by a (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a Policy Memorandum dated November 11, 2013, USCIS has stated that time spent in the U.S. in H-4 status does not count against future time limits in H-2 or H-3 status. As background, a foreign national spouse in the…<\/span><\/p>\n