Quick question?

I have applied to change my status to a non-immigrant worker. It was denied and as it was instructed at the end of the denial letter I have applied to reopen as new facts has constituted. Every application has been done in the time allowed. As I am waiting for the appeal to be answered I am doing nothing against the law (i.e. working). Am I out of status? Am I legally in the US?

I appreciate the answer especially from the gurus.

I have applied to change my status to a non-immigrant worker. It was denied and as it was instructed at the end of the denial letter I have applied to reopen as new facts has constituted. Every application has been done in the time allowed. As I am waiting for the appeal to be answered I am doing nothing against the law (i.e. working). Am I out of status? Am I legally in the US?

I appreciate the answer especially from the gurus.

Anybody???

During pendency of your Immigration Appeal, you was entitled to get a EAD from INS. If you have one and it is valid, you are legal here.

No! you are not allowed to get EAD while appeal is pending, also their is no automatic stay of deportation in all the appeal cases.
Your appeal should be based on the condition changes, For Instant, IF its political asylum case then The country condition changed required to motion , or Any new development which was not produced before.
Appeals are time senstive andshould be applied within the time allowed, and limited to numerical bound too. Many cases only one appeal is allowed.

Bottom line is you have to define first what kind of appeal you have ? What was the decision? Denial/Removal/ Voluntary departure etc? Was it With BIA or Circuit court etc..
It seems you want to know the answer and don't want to put your details here, I can see you have history behind it.

you have to post from what category are you changing visas from? B2 to H1, f1 to H1, K-3 to H1 (not allowed), what???

The status change is fron B-2 to L1A and there were new facts existed which were not there during the application. Namely ownership structure of the holding company. This visa is for a "new office."

Thanks,

fron=from

The appeal is for a denial and it was made to the same center (Vermont). The appeal or reopen or reconsider was made in the time allowed.

I was not put through deportation and I don't need EAD and never applied for one. At the end of the denial letter there was instructions of how to appeal.

Sorry for the partial explanations.

Again, anybody?

your application for L while your in B2 preserves your stay pending the result of your application even if you have expired i-94. once denied you have to leave the country asap or else you are accruing illegal stay. if 180 days past from your i-94 expiration and you are denied of your L application then you are now illegaly staying in the US barred for 3 years if you ever try to re-enter the US again. I dont believe an appeal on a denied application gives any ground for legal stay. sure you can appeal but you should leave the US and wait for the appeal decision outside. if it gets approved then you can come back with an L. sorry for the bad news but like i said, i am not an expert on your case. get a 2nd opinion.

Thanks for the answer. The second opinion I've got says "If my appeal is approved I have no problem." Otherwise, as you have mentioned. But the denial letter and the INS website doesn't mention anything about leaving.

INS is pretty good at creating rules without proper guidelines. a competent lawyer will advise you to leave upon denial but will pursue your appeal waiting for the decision while outside of the US. if you current situtation will ban you 3 years if you leave you relly dont have any choice right now except to wait to get the approval. the case of you should leave or no depends on the INS officer adjudicating your case. All i can tell you is that is you leave the US with an expired i-94 and 180 days has passed and you dont have an approval on anything you are banned for 3 years. goodluck on your case. hope you get an approval for your appeal.

The funny thing is that I am working with a very experienced lawyer and I specifically asked, if I have to leave right after the denial letter. He said "NO." He was furious about the decision and he said "this will be approved." To prove his point he has not received a dollar from me. All in all he is absolutely sure that everything will be fine.