Extending wife's stay in US, need advice

[ppatil]

Let me start with some background. My wife has a masters from a US university. She has used her OPT from that masters. Her employer filed H1B at wrong address and by the time he re-filed at the correct location, the H1B cap was full in 2011. So she had to go back to school. She is doing a certification course which will be over by March 15th 2013. She is working full time as part of CPT. She cannot get OPT thru cert course.
My status:
My priority date is Sept 2006 EB3. I just filed for labor cert under EB2. I have a 2 yr EAD/AP card. My questions are:
1. If I go on H1B and she goes on H4, does she need to go out of the country to get approval (I heard this from a friend of mine).
2. I believe I can apply for both visas concurrently. We will apply under premium process. In that case, once we get the notice of receipt, is she allowed to continue with her stay in the US till a decision is made by USCIS on the visas.
3. If I go on H1B, can I travel on AP or do I need to go for stamping and my AP becomes void.
4. Are there any other options to extend her stay here.
5. Can she do another masters and get a CPT and continue her job.
Thanks in advance.

[andycool]

Originally Posted by ppatil

Let me start with some background. My wife has a masters from a US university. She has used her OPT from that masters. Her employer filed H1B at wrong address and by the time he re-filed at the correct location, the H1B cap was full in 2011. So she had to go back to school. She is doing a certification course which will be over by March 15th 2013. She is working full time as part of CPT. She cannot get OPT thru cert course.
My status:
My priority date is Sept 2006 EB3. I just filed for labor cert under EB2. I have a 2 yr EAD/AP card. My questions are:
1. If I go on H1B and she goes on H4, does she need to go out of the country to get approval (I heard this from a friend of mine).
2. I believe I can apply for both visas concurrently. We will apply under premium process. In that case, once we get the notice of receipt, is she allowed to continue with her stay in the US till a decision is made by USCIS on the visas.
3. If I go on H1B, can I travel on AP or do I need to go for stamping and my AP becomes void.
4. Are there any other options to extend her stay here.
5. Can she do another masters and get a CPT and continue her job.
Thanks in advance.

I have couple of questions for you ..
1) If you file for your H1b and H4 for your wife if she gets I 94 with her approval she need not go out .
2) does your wife use all her 27 months OPT??
3) she can file for H1 again in this April ...( if she can stay leglly till then )

[ppatil]

Thanks andycool.
She has not used all of the 27 months. But she let her opt expire the first time and the H1-B visa was filed by her employer in the grace period. She spoke to her school international advisot and they said she cannot use the rest of the OPT bcos it was expired. Is that true?
She has grace period after her semester gets over on March 15th. If her employer applys for H1-B and it gets approved can she stay her till October and start work then. Thanks again.

[krishmunn]

One big question is , how is she working on CPT for a certificate program ? As I understand, you are not even entitled to F1 for a certificate program . Is she studying in an unaccredited school?