Indian Born Students In The Usa

It depends on what your child wants to study. For medicine or law she will need to do post-graduation. Medical school in US will be difficult without green card. For engineering you can work right after undergrad. Not many US students go for engineering masters/PhD straight away.

 

you said your kid is in elementary . for argument sake. he or she is 5th grade. You have 13 years for college. not sure if it is worth to plan so ahead. we do not know how immigration changes here . even how education is changing.

if you are planning to work, that is whole different discussion.

 

It is my understanding, once a labor certification is approved, the employer is entitled to apply for the Greencard of the employee and his family. When Greencard application is pending with the USCIS (even if it takes many years), the employee has a right to work in the US and it makes the children eligible to continue their education in the US as well. It is the residential status in each state that gives them discounted credit hour fees and not citizenship. Am I missing something here?

 

this is correct. after 1 yr of residential stay , a person is treated as in state in colleges.

also OP. child can study in h4 , but cannot work. if you want the child to work then need to apply F1 and OPT. some of my neighbors who still are pending h1 . are planning to keep their kid in h4 till 3rd year to save money.

also you can send child to india for study or canada or germany if green card pending for saving costs. that is why i said, those decisions are too far to plan.

not sure about OP intentions on the Question.

 

Immigration laws keep changing. Even if is shows now that you won't get greencard for many years, situation keep changing. In our time all EAD came suddenly for many people who were not expecting it. It is so silly to plan or worry after 15 years. Plan for next 5 years if you want to.

 

Wish4miracle is asking about the aging out issue of foreign born H4 dependent kids in United States. If the parents do not receive their GC before the kids turn 21,H4 dependent children are no longer able to maintain their status. By 21, they would have anyway finished schools, but to apply for college and further studies, they need to apply for F1 visa , and they are no longer considered as a resident.
This has not previously been an issue because the H-1B or L-1 parent often received his or her green card prior to the child turning 21, allowing the child to also receive the green card as a derivative of the parent’s principal application. However, as the green card backlog continues to grow for those born in India and China, more and more children are at risk of ageing out of their dependent status before their parents are able to receive their green cards. ( Source : F-1 Visas for Kids Ageing Out of Dependent Visas - Reddy Neumann Brown PC)

 

Dear OP,

Please refer this H4 Kid Age-out at 21 (Options, Lawsuit Chances?) - USA
I would say apply for F1 visa 2 years before kid turns 21. 2 years before because of the long USCIS processing time for H4 to F1 change of status. This way your child can stay and study in US, but after studies he/she needs to start his/her own H1B process ( like you did) to work here.. The hopeful thing is your child is young and there is still time for a hopeful change in the immigration law or even better you receive GC beore your child turns 21.
Indian Families in USA File Lawsuit to Protect Rights of Their ‘Aging out’ Kids on H4