J1 visa to H2B visa concerns

[dmprime1 0]

Good day to everyone!

I hope someone can help us regarding our case here in the USA:

We were a J1 visa holder from May 2015 to May 15, 2016. (Our J1 visa is not subject to the 212 e rule) Before we finished our J1 grace period on May 15, an employer petitioned with I-129 us to change status from J1 for H2B seasonal worker. (Validity of this petition is until Oct 31 2016 only) Employer advised that they first submitted our papers / documents to USCIS this May 2 to prevent us from being out of status --- to make our status continuous. Employer advised though that USCIS returned our petition papers back to them twice because USCIS thought that it was lacking some documents to support our petition. But employer is certain that USCIS made an error and just didn't review the petition well enough because they submitted our petition papers to USCIS complete. So in the end, finally, after our employer re-submitted our petition again, USCIS issued a receipt number for our case just this June 28, under regular processing.

Our employer just recently changed our petition from regular to premium processing because we were all concerned that USCIS hasn't released any decision yet up until and this petition they filed for is expiring on Oct 31. On September 28, we got the receipt number for the premium processing, and on September 30, we received our RFE. We strongly believe that we cannot extend our visas because we don't have an i-94 with us yet.

Here are my Questions:

1. Is it advisable to leave USA before November? - since the petition is also expiring this Oct 31, 2016.

2. What was our status from the time that the agency filed our J1 visa to H2B visa that we can show to USCIS? since we only have our receipt number with us that our case is pending for a long time.

3. Based on our situation that I mentioned above, are we banned from coming back here in the USA?

4. I have potential employers who will hire us back for next summer 2017 and file an H2B petition to get us from our country (Philippines) - Can I still apply without getting any questions / problems with the consul or the embassy?

5. We worked with the agency for 5 months even if our visa is pending with USCIS. Will the embassy or consul will ask that if we re-apply for another H2B visa? Should we say YES or NO? Please advice us reasons to tell.

Thank you in advance!!

[Adil & Jeanne 296]

would help to have a timeline here to know when all was submitted

there is a limit of 66,000 H2B visas issued each year

[dmprime1 0]

would help to have a timeline here to know when all was submitted

there is a limit of 66,000 H2B visas issued each year

Thank you for your reply!

The H2B cap was reached last May 12, 2016. But our papers was submitted on time which was May 2, 2016. USCIS returned our papers since they made some errors and by not paying attention properly in our case.