Jack8602

It's now been 11 months since i moved to Texas, and i f@cking love it here. So much so that I've asked my employer to look in to the green card options for me.

I've settled in so well, going back to the UK is always just a visit to see friends and family, and I've now found that when i say i'm going 'Home' - i mean flying back to Texas - I've got a girlfriend here who i met within the first month when i moved, and we have an awesome relationship. I've met a great group of friends through my love of skydiving and count myself lucky to have met so many great people through work and hobbies in such a short time. My job is going really well too. All of this has definitely helped my transition to the US.

I couldn't have asked for a better experience since moving here.

On to my question!

Has anyone here got experience of transitioning from an L1B visa to a green card? or know of someone that's gone through the process? I've searched online and on here but the length of time this takes seems to vary greatly, and I've also seen some discouraging posts about getting a GC from an L1B specifically.

My visa is initially due to expire 31st October 2018, i know i can extend that for a further 2 years - but i already know i want to stay so i figured moving straight to the green card route would be easier, and i want to be pro-active in getting this in motion earlier rather than later.

Any wisdom/advice from you lovely lot appreciated.

Cheers

Olly_

If you're not in a managerial role (and/or weren't in one while back in the UK) you'll have to file under EB-2 or EB-3 which involves labor certification.

It's not impossible by any means but it basically involves advertising your role for a certain amount of time and showing that the company were unable to employ a US citizen or LPR to fill the role.

Pulaski

Depending on exactly how "awesome" your relationship with your girlfriend is, you might want to consider the marriage and adjustment of status route, which frees you from reliance on your employer for your green card.

Olly_

Indeed, I meant to add that to my post but got distracted and forgot

Jack8602

Yeah I'd already thought of that, ideally i'd prefer to avoid if possible, but never say never i guess. We've discussed it, and it is an option.

My job is very specific to the business and contains a great amount of knowledge (i built out the specific environment as to what they're using IT wise) so I'm fairly confident it'd pass that requirement of the 30 day effort. But that said, i guess you never know.

MeMeJD

I have moved from a L1B to EB2 GC under premium processing. The full process took around 18 months all in all which included the initial collection of documents, references, and such so it depends how fast you can get everything together.

yellowroom

another option, depending on how well you're doing at work, is to get a job change, regrade and/or promotion which means you could transition to L1A and thus easier to green card. Your company lawyer should be able to advise on that.

Olly_

Getting promoted while in the US isn't much help if you weren't working in a managerial capacity outside the US.

The EB-1C requirements are:

username.exe

I don't have any advice, but wanted to congratulate you on settling in so successfully

yellowroom

Thanks for the correction, I was not aware of that, neither were my HR when I was in the US either as it was an option discussed for me when I was there.