If someone with a B1/B2 valid for 10 years applies for green card, does the visa becomes invalid? Do they give work when you first apply, or are there other things that happen before the green card is received?
1 Answer
If someone with a B1/B2 valid for 10 years applies for green card, does the visa becomes invalid?
Technically, no. But the visa will become effectively unusable because someone entering as a visitor cannot have immigrant intent (i.e. intent to immigrate during that stay), and an immigration officer at entry is very likely to think that someone who has applied to immigrate in the recent past has immigrant intent.
Also, if you are doing Adjustment of Status (AOS) in the US, you will abandon your AOS if you leave while it is pending unless you've been granted Advance Parole (in which case you would have to enter on that Advance Parole). So there isn't any chance to use your visitor visa unless you abandon the AOS first anyway.
Do they give work when you first apply, or are there other things that happen before the green card is received?
If you are doing Adjustment of Status in the US, you can choose to apply for an EAD (to allow work in the meantime) and Advance Parole (to allow leaving and re-entering the US in the meantime) for free together with the AOS application. EAD and AP usually take around 3 months after applying to get.