[ckaygusu]

No, you do not need a visa to STAY in the country. Legal status and having a visa in your passport is not tied together.

Your legal status is shown in your I-94. You can get into the country in a status, and adjust to another, without having a visa to reflect the new status.

If you leave the country and want to get back in, however, you need to have the right visa.

Again, a visa is only required to have a CBP officer admit you into the country in a specific status. After getting in, it does not have much importance.

What Trump is trying to do is, hack his way into enforcing the policies he thinks it is a good idea. Since SCOTUS gave him a carte blanche with respect to admitting aliens into the country, in order to stop H1B, he is using the same legislation. That lets him only to stop people from getting in; other ways of stopping it either takes time or needs to go through Congress.

[armada651]

Your I-94 still has an expiration date, if you can't renew your Visa then your I-94 will expire eventually. Once the I-94 expires your stay is illegal. Also you're still overstaying your Visa, which is going to affect your future applications.

Also how would you transition to another visa when applications are suspended? You'll have to live in the United States without a job in the hopes the suspension is lifted before your I-94 expires.

[ckaygusu]

You are still conflating legal status and visa in an improper way.

The I94 expiration case can happen in practice. I don't know all possible cases, but at least for H1B done through change of status, you are not required to get a visa as long as you do not leave the country. And no, you r I-94 does not expire for three years, so it is entirely possible to complete a whole H1B period without a visa.

[armada651]

As an H1 all your authorizations are tied to your Visa in some way. They may not expire at the same time, but if you have no way of acquiring a new visa (which under this suspension, you don't) you're in trouble whether you leave the country or not.

> You are still conflating legal status and visa in an improper way.

I am and you should speak to your immigration lawyer if your visa is expiring.

[MVorlm]

This is incorrect information. H1B "Status" and H1B "Visa" are two separate things.

A common immigration path is F1(Student) -> OPT -> H1B Status. If the person was already in the US(because they're going to a US college) then they would be given H1B status(read: no visa). Getting a H1B visa from the US consulate would be required IFF they: 1) Weren't already in the US, 2) Need to leave and reenter the US.

If the person is _already_ in the US when they receive H1B Status then they don't need to receive a visa. Not having a visa is not illegal or affect work status. A visa simply allows ingress and egress in/out of the country and does not confer work authorization(which is what an H1b "Status" does).

Source: I've gone through this process, and from a family of attorneys.

[ckaygusu]

Oh man.

I am going through F1->H1B process. I do not have an H1B visa, and I have a document that tells me I am allowed to stay in the country in the H1B status between a time period, and you are telling me I am in trouble because I do not have a visa. Ok, I suppose.

[armada651]

I don't know how this order affects your current process, definitely talk to you immigration lawyer about that. But we're talking about immigrants who have not yet applied for renewal, they could be in a situation where they have no chance for renewal.

[ckaygusu]

Nope, we were talking about visas and legal status, and about getting kicked out if lack of visa. But whatever, I think you get the point.