Let's say if a company sponsors you for GC, and if your TPS expires before getting GC or labor certification approval, what would be the option to stay in status and work for that company?

You can apply for EAD and Advance Parole while your GC in process.

when will someone be eligible to file EAD? I guess the first thing would be PERM/labor certification right? And I heard it takes upto 6 months to a year to get approved. Not sure on that. So my friend didn’t get selected in H1 lottery 2nd time, now he has 1 more lottery but that’s uncertain. So he asked employer to see if they can file GC based on TPS. But they are questioning that GC takes time and TPS is expiring on October. If they start labor certification now they might not have time later to complete it. Since he has one more year of opt, labor certification might get approved on 1 year timeline? Can he apply for Ead after PERM is approved or does it take more time to get EAD?

I told him he can even apply for masters and work on that company on CPT. Would that work?

Before filing labor certification, there is another step prevailing wage determination and advertising and recruitment (this is not required for some academic position). This process is taking about 2-4 months. Then file labor which takes about 3-6 months. Labor may take more if it gets an audit. Once labor is approved, you can file concurrently I140, I485, EAD and advanced parole if the visa is current. Because of pandemic, visa has been current for each month for countries like Nepal, that is a nice part of the equation. You wont be out of status once you file I485 even if f1 expires. So if he starts now, it is likely labor to be approved within a year. Good luck. This is just a suggestion and not a legal advice.

appreciate the feedback, company agrees to move forward with GC process, thank you -- hope tps extends finger cross