Hey guys,I am a student on an F-1 married to a US citizen. I will be graduating with my Masters in May. Before the Covid-19 situation escalated, two months ago, I had filed I-765 for STEM based OPT, which is still being processed. However, given the recent upheavals in immigration laws and because of nationwide shutdown, my US citizen spouse and I decided it would be a lot safer to apply for permanent residence through our marriage rather than wait for my OPT to be approved and then seek the H1B route. So, we submitted a family based permanent residence application last week.
As part of the family based permanent residence application, we also submitted another I-765 application since OPT-based I-765 and family based I-765 are treated under different case categories. Therefore, my questions are:
(1) Will having filed a new I-765 while my previous OPT based I-765 application is still pending cause a problem in our permanent residence application?
(2) If USCIS starts processing my permanent residence application before my OPT based I-765 is approved, will USCIS reject my OPT based I-765 application (since I have another I-765 application as part of my permanent residence application)?
(3) If my OPT-based I-765 does get approved before USCIS starts processing my permanent residence application, can I travel outside the US without an approved I-131 (since I would have an OPT-based EAD card)?
The last question is not as important as the other two, so if you're under time constraint, your advise on just the first two questions would be very helpful.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/gan909/two_i765s_submitted_first_for_opt_and_second/