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Case Stories
⏳ EB-3 Unskilled Worker Pending - India/International PD August 2023, Derivative Spouse 245(k) Strategy
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⏳ **Case Status: Pending**
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An F-1 student EB-3 Unskilled Worker petitioner with a PD of August 2023 is planning AOS filing while addressing unauthorized gig work performed by the derivative spouse. The spouse worked approximately 85 days after a November 2025 re-entry, intending to use Section 245(k) protection, while earnings were deposited into the primary applicant's bank account for household management purposes.
Case involves a married couple on F-1 status since February 2022, with an EB-3 Unskilled Worker priority date of August 2023. The primary applicant maintained full F-1 compliance. The derivative spouse performed unauthorized app-based delivery work for approximately 85 days following a November 2025 re-entry, which falls within the 180-day Section 245(k) threshold. A key complication is that the spouse's gig earnings were deposited into the primary applicant's bank account for household bill management. The couple plans to proactively disclose the violation and relies on a police/medical report from August 2025 to document that the spouse, not the primary, performed the labor. A new clean bank account was opened in February 2026 to demonstrate correction. The case is pre-filing; the final action date has not yet become current.
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**[📎 View Original Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/USCIS/comments/1sfvbzv/primary_applicant_strategy_spouse_admitting/)**
*Source: Reddit EB-3 search*
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*This post was automatically curated from online sources to share real case experiences with the community.*
Section 245(k) allows derivative beneficiaries to cure up to 180 days of unauthorized employment since the last lawful admission — 85 days falls within this window, which is the strongest element of this filing strategy. However, having gig income deposited into the primary applicant's account is a documented financial tie that USCIS adjudicators may scrutinize under INA 245(k) and general admissibility review. The third-party evidence (police/medical report) establishing the spouse as the physical laborer is a meaningful evidentiary asset, but it does not eliminate the paper trail connecting income to the primary's account. Cases with proactive disclosure of derivative spouse violations under 245(k) have been approved, but the account commingling introduces a fact pattern that is not cleanly resolved by 245(k) alone. Applicants in similar situations should retain experienced immigration counsel before filing, ensure all financial records are organized to show the administrative rationale for account use, and be prepared for potential RFE on the primary's admissibility or source-of-funds questions. The 85-day window and the documented re-entry date are the most defensible elements here.