want to work in the USA

Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 1637
Location: Calgary

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:39 am

 

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You can't get work authorization merely as the spouse of an H-1B visa holder. The point is that there's really no advantage being married, in fact it's a disadvantage in this situation (for a change) because as a "co-habiting partner" you don't need a visa, you just enter as B-2, but if you're married you need an H-4 visa.

But there are no real benefits having H-4 over B-2, other than avoiding a tedious conversation at the border with USCIS. You can study on H-4 but the provisions for it are more restricted than for F-1, and as F-1 is trivially easy to get for Canadians, you'd be far better off leaving and re-entering as F-1 if you wanted to go to college.

If you are married and his employer sponsors him for permanent residency then eventually you would be allowed to work when he adjusts status to LPR as you would be a dependant. But that's not a short process, assuming his employer even wants to do it and he actually qualifies for it.

If you really want to work in the US (and you don't qualify for O-1 either) I'd say your best bet is to do a master's degree there, for several reasons:

There is an additional H-1B quota for people with US master's degrees;
You can do a degree in a field that qualifies you for TN-1;
You can get limited work authorization while you are a student in F-1 status.

But other than that I think perhaps he needs to look into moving to Canada!
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Steve.

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