Hi, my H1b1 will expire on July 30, 09. I was told that I can only get EAD at this point, but I am not sure that is correct. I have two questions:
1. Do I really used up 6 year of my H1b1?
My first H1b was approved valid from 07/30/2003 to 06/14/2006 to work for a university. However, I applied for EAD on 2005 based on my I485 (I140 approved on Sept 05) and the EAD was approved on 11/05/05. I did not show this EAD to the university and I assume that I was still on H1B1 status. However, I left the university in middle of Feb of 2006 to started work for a company on March 6, 2006 using my EAD. Therefore, doesn't that mean I only used 2 years and 7 months(7/30/03 to 2/28/06) of my H1b1 in my first job?
I used my EAD to work for the second job from March 6, 2006. Although my H1b1 for the company is approved from 10/01/2006 to 7/30/09, I was told I could not use that H1b1 due to the gap between my two H1b1 unless I went abroad and reenter the US. So I kept using my EAD until I get a chance to Canada to get a valid H1b1 and re-entered the US on June 4 2007 . Therefore, I believe I did not initiate the usage of H1b1 until June 4, 07. By this calculation, on July 30, 09, I will only use 2 years and 2 months on my second H1b1 and I will still have more than 1 year (15 months) left for my 6 year H1b1 limit. However, my company believe that I will use 2 years and 10 months for my second job at the end of July 09. Which one is correct?
2. My company said that I cannot extend my H1b1 any more because my I-140 has been approved and my I-485 is pending. The only way from now is EAD. However, I checked pjiang's post and it seems to me that I can at least get one yeat extension if not 3 years. What is the right answer?