Rockgurl

I am a green card holder, and it was an employment based one...I am a nurse and my agency was my sponsor. I came over on a 21-month contract, and at my green card interview I was asked whether I intended to take up post on my arrival, and to promise to start the job when I arrived in the US. I did this, and I have now been here 4 months. I want to break my contract and get another job on the other side of the country. Am I allowed to do this or will I be breaking a rule and jeopardizing my green card if I leave? If I have a green card am I now free to do whatever I want? Would I be able to take a month or two off or do I have to be working all the time? My green card is not conditional as far as I am aware.

toonarmy

I think that maybe to be on the safe side you should make the period you have been working for the employer at least 6 mnths. I have been told by my lawyer 6-12 months is good. This shows the authorities that you did indeed intend to work for them.

I think in practice however, unless you really upset your employer, there should not be a problem, particularly if your 485 application was pending for more than 180 days.

Hope this helps.

Toonarmy

toonarmy

Sorry - forget the last bit - I dont think the 180 rule (AC21) applies to consular processing - correct me if I'm wrong experts out there.

Rockgurl

Thanks for that. I don't quite know what you mean by 485, 180 rule (AC21), or consular processing. Could you explain?

I will have worked for my employer for 6 months by the time I intend to leave.

Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email

It sounds like you got an immigrant visa through consular processing.

There is really no hard-and-fast answer to your question, because there
are two conflicting rules involved here:

- Green Card holders enjoy the freedom to accept any job, anywhere in the
USA (except for certain government jobs).

- holders of an employment-based Green Card are expected to intend to work
"permanently" for the sponsoring employer. Clearly, "permanently" does not
mean "until your death" - that would be entirely unreasonable. It has
never been clearly defined what it actually means, and very much depends
on the specific circumstances. For instance, if you want to move because
you met somebody after you arrived and plan to get married, that would go
over differently from you moving because you already had a job waiting for
you before you arrived in the USA. It would also depend on whether you
quit, were fired or laid off, and a gazillion other things.

That said, there are some rules of thumb - again, they can vary depending
on both circumstances and on which lawyer you happen to ask.

The first rule of thumb is that if you already worked for that employer
for a while on an H-1B (or any other status), then leaving after just a
month or two shouldn't be a problem.

The second rule of thumb is that if you only started the job after
arriving in the USA, depending on the lawyer who tells you this, two years
in that job would be completely safe. Most lawyers will tell you that one
year is plenty, and some more aggressive lawyers mention as little as six
months.

All that said, realistically my guess is that USCIS does not have too much
interest in such cases. It might come up during naturalization
proceedings, if you decide to get naturalized. Other than that, chances
are that USCIS wouldn't follow up on it (even though they could, based on
the AR-11 that you would file for your address change).

Still, personally I would wait at least two more months.

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 07:59:50 +0000, Rockgurl wrote:


    > I am a green card holder, and it was an employment based one...I am a
    > nurse and my agency was my sponsor. I came over on a 21-month contract,
    > and at my green card interview I was asked whether I intended to take up
    > post on my arrival, and to promise to start the job when I arrived in
    > the US. I did this, and I have now been here 4 months. I want to break
    > my contract and get another job on the other side of the country. Am I
    > allowed to do this or will I be breaking a rule and jeopardizing my
    > green card if I leave? If I have a green card am I now free to do
    > whatever I want? Would I be able to take a month or two off or do I have
    > to be working all the time? My green card is not conditional as far as I
    > am aware.

--
Remember, I am strictly a layperson without any legal training. I encourage
everybody to seek competent legal counsel rather than relying on usenet
newsgroups.

Please support H.R. 539, H.R. 832 and S. 1510. More information at
http://www.kkeane.com/lobbyspousal-faq.shtml

Please visit my new FAQ at http://www.kkeane.com (always under construction)

My email address in usenet posts is now invalid for spam protection. See
my Web site for information on how to contact me.

Please feel free to enjoy some of my photographs at my Web site
http://www.ingopakleppa.com ! Comments are welcome.

Rockgurl

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Ingo. I will be most upset if I can't leave this job for a while, and I feel like I've sold my soul to this damn company. I will definitely have to see a lawyer now, and get some advice.

Rex Lustrous

AC21 applied only to I-485 processing, which is an alternative to Consular
processing.

If you decide to choose Consular processing to get the GC approved, there is
no AC21 applicable, so you would have to continue to be employed by the same
employer until the CP is completed and you exit (for CP interview) and
re-enter the country. Of course, you would have to work for some more time
after GC too, to prove your intent.

In I-485 however, if your case has been pending for more than 180 days, you
can change to a 'similar' job, which is a provision of AC21.

But rockgurl is taking of an approved GC case with no conditions, where
neither of these issues apply. Rockgurl may have to work with the current
employer long enough to show that the intent of 'permanent employment' with
this employer was real. Like Ingo said, how long one should work is
subjective, and perhaps the USCIS does not care once the GC is approved.

- R



"toonarmy" <member22271@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by Rockgurl
    > > I am a green card holder,
    > and it was an employment based one...I am a nurse and my agency was my
    > sponsor. I came over on a 21-month contract, and at my green card
    > interview I was asked whether I intended to take up post on my arrival,
    > and to promise to start the job when I arrived in the US. I did this,
    > and I have now been here 4 months. I want to break my contract and get
    > another job on the other side of the country. Am I allowed to do this or
    > will I be breaking a rule and jeopardizing my green card if I leave? If
    > I have a green card am I now free to do whatever I want? Would I be able
    > to take a month or two off or do I have to be working all the time? My
    > green card is not conditional as far as I am aware.
    > Sorry -
    > forget the last bit - I dont think the 180 rule (AC21) applies to
    > consular processing - correct me if I'm wrong experts out there.
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Rockgurl

Thank you....I appreciate your post. Could you please explain what you mean exactly by Consular processing, and also by AC21. I'm not really familiar with those terms. My agency dealt with all my GC application so I'm not really sure what it allmeans.

Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email

On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 15:19:26 +0000, Rockgurl wrote:

    > Thank you....I appreciate your post. Could you please explain what you
    > mean exactly by Consular processing, and also by AC21. I'm not really
    > familiar with those terms. My agency dealt with all my GC application so
    > I'm not really sure what it allmeans.

Consular processing means that you applied for an immigrant visa at a US
consulate. Basically, if you used consular processing, you would have
received a sealed brown envelope and taken that with you on your flight to
the USA. It is one of the two main ways of getting a Green Card (the other
being filing an I-485 within the USA itself).

AC21 is a law that Congress passed in response to USCIS taking too long to
process I-485 applications. It allows people to change jobs even before
the I-485 has been approved (actually, AC21 does a couple other things,
too, but that is the clause that Rex was referring to).

--
Remember, I am strictly a layperson without any legal training. I encourage
everybody to seek competent legal counsel rather than relying on usenet
newsgroups.

Please support H.R. 539, H.R. 832 and S. 1510. More information at
http://www.kkeane.com/lobbyspousal-faq.shtml

Please visit my new FAQ at http://www.kkeane.com (always under construction)

My email address in usenet posts is now invalid for spam protection. See
my Web site for information on how to contact me.

Please feel free to enjoy some of my photographs at my Web site
http://www.ingopakleppa.com ! Comments are welcome.