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Most relocation checklists start three months out. Several of the decisions that matter most have already closed by then, so here are the ones worth knowing early. Health cover. Indian policies impose a waiting period on pre-existing conditions. Buying while you are still well is the difference between being covered and being excluded, and there is no way to buy the waiting period back afterwards. Social Security credits. If you are close to qualifying for lifetime benefits, staying a few extra months can be worth a great deal — and Indian working years cannot be added to make up a shortfall, because there is no totalisation agreement between the two countries. The order you move money in. Which account holds it when your residency changes decides what you can move later, and that ordering is much harder to undo than to plan. We have a fuller version of this at /relocation, including the two tax calendars that do not line up. It is marked as unverified where it is unverified — take the money and immigration parts to a chartered accountant before you act on them.

A question we see a lot, usually from somebody who has already stopped being paid. Check the posted processing time first. A service request raised before your case passes the normal processing time for the office handling it is closed without action — which is why so many people report that raising one did nothing. Then the automatic extension. Some renewal categories keep you authorised to work while the renewal is pending, provided your underlying status is still valid. People have gone unpaid for months while entitled to keep working, simply because nobody told them. Then an expedite, if you have grounds. Severe financial loss to you or your employer is a recognised one, and it needs a letter stating the specific loss rather than a general plea. Which of these applies depends on your category and your dates, and that is worth twenty minutes with somebody qualified before you spend three months waiting.

Leaving the country while an adjustment application is pending abandons it — with two exceptions. You may return on advance parole, or you may return in valid H-1B or L-1 status if you hold it. That second exception is why people in those categories are told they do not strictly need advance parole. What the advice usually leaves out is where the risk really sits: returning in your status requires a valid visa stamp, and if yours has expired the trip means a consular appointment. The abandonment rule is rarely what strands somebody. An appointment backlog is. If you have a pending I-485, filing for advance parole alongside it costs nothing extra and means a delayed stamp is not the end of the trip. We cannot tell you whether a specific trip is safe — that depends on your status, your stamp, and the post you would apply at.

Asked constantly, and the two details that trip people up are both about counting. The allowances are cumulative. 90 days during post-completion OPT, and a further 60 once you are on the 24-month STEM extension — 150 in total across the whole authorisation. The extension does not reset the count, and days already used still count. The clock runs from your last day of work, not from when it was reported. Reporting late does not buy you days. It does create a separate problem, because a change has to be reported within 10 days. One thing worth knowing: unpaid work for an organisation that would otherwise pay somebody for the role does not stop the clock. If you are between jobs, your DSO is the person who can tell you exactly where your count stands.

This is the most-asked question in every immigration forum right now, so here is what the rules say. We have published it as a starting point — add your own situation below and the room will know more than we do about how it plays out in practice. When the clock starts. The day after your last paid day, not the day you were told. The window is up to 60 consecutive days or the end date on your I-94, whichever comes first — and people routinely forget the second half and lose weeks they thought they had. What you can do inside it. A new employer can file for you with a request to extend your stay; you can file to change to another status; you can file to adjust status if a visa is available to you; or, if you hold an approved I-140 and your priority date is not current, you can apply for a compelling-circumstances work permit. That last route exists specifically for people stuck in a backlog. What ends it. Doing nothing. If the window closes with nothing filed, you and any dependants are expected to leave. We cannot tell you which route fits your case — that turns on your petition, your dates, and your family's status. Take it to somebody qualified, and use the window to do it rather than to research it.