J1 Student Cap-Gap Eligibility

Hello, I am a graduate student at a top-10 US university. I am on a J-1 visa, since I wanted to ‎allow my wife to work on a J-2. I got a job offer, and the company is willing to sponsor me for ‎H1B. The problem is, I won't be eligible for the master's degree on April 1, 2013, and given the ‎expected demand, I will most probably miss the quota by the time I already have the diploma ‎or the letter of completion in hand.

So, it pushes me to the next H1B cycle. In the meantime, I am eligible to work - thanks to the J-‎‎1 Academic Training (AT) provision (similar to OPT on F-1 visa), but then I face another ‎problem: even if my H1B is approved in 2014, my Academic Training period expires before ‎October 1, 2014. It means I have a gap of a few months between the end of my AT and the ‎beginning of my H1B.

I did some legal research, and as far as I understand, there is no "cap gap" provision for J-1 ‎students, as opposed to F-1 students.
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However, until 2009, the Commissioner (who really is “Director of the Bureau of Citizenship ‎and Immigration Services [simply put, the Director of USCIS]. the Commissioner of the Bureau ‎of Customs and Border Protection, and the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Immigration ‎and Customs Enforcement”, according to 8 C.F.R. § 1.1(d)) published an yearly notice in the ‎Federal Register to "bridge the gap" and extend the duration of status for F-1 and J-1 status ‎holders in the years the H-1B cap was reached.

In those years, by publishing the notice the commissioner exercised his authority under 8 ‎C.F.R. 214.2(f)(5)(vi) [for F students] and under 8 C.F.R. 214.2(j)(1)(vi) [for J students].

On April 8, 2008 an Interim Final Rule was published in the Federal Register, and permanently ‎codified the automatic "cap gap" in the regulations – but only for F-1 students.

No such regulation was introduced for J-1 students – but the discretionary provision still ‎remains in the law books: see 8 C.F.R. 214.2(j)(1)(vi). It means that the Commissioner (Director ‎of USCIS) can still "manually" bridge the gap for J-1 students – as he indeed was doing for ‎many years, concurrently with extending the status for F-1 students.

And here is the question: I am aware of the answer published by the USCIS in 2010 ‎‎(http://1.usa.gov/146tBaf). However, given the intertwined history of F-1 and J-1 "cap gap" ‎extensions for students – for many years – it seems that the abovementioned permanent ‎codification for F-1 simply "forgot" to include J-1 students – who for almost all intents and ‎purposed are very similar to F-1 holders.

Is my analysis correct?
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I believe there are thousands of J-1 students in the similar situation, experiencing the same ‎‎"cap gap" as their F-1 classmates. Is it possible to "switch" from J-1 to F-1 while still at school or ‎during the Academic Training?

Or, from a practical standpoint, such J-1 students simply continue working through the gap – ‎and when time is due to renew the H1B in 3 years, USCIS understands that there is no practical ‎difference between F-1s and J-1s, and sees this period as automatically covered – exactly as it ‎would for an F-1?

Finally, is it reasonable to expect that an ambitious immigration attorney will pick up the ‎gauntlet and ask the Commissioner to extend the status for J-1 students in a particular year ‎when the cap is reached?

I apologize for the long post – I just wanted to gather all the information together for future ‎googlers. I would appreciate any input! Thank you very much in advance.

There is no cap-gap for J1 visa holders. Have you explored seeking an extension of your J1-AT?

Thanks a lot for your reply! Every source that I checked says that for a master's degree the maximum period of Academic Training is 18 months. Only PhDs can have 36 months, but I am back to the workforce and can't see myself pursuing another degree.

I am not aware of any other option to extend the AT beyond 18 months. I did a thorough search on the question of extension as well, but could not find any mention of such procedure.

Can you please point me to your source? Is granting an extension of J-1 AT something in which USCIS has some sort of general discretion - i.e., I should just ask for extension beyond 18 months and they approve, despite the fact that every university site says that 18 months is the maximum length for AT?

By all means, please elaborate!