Sujan

All,

Sorry if this has been asked before. We have a highly specialized member in our work team who's on L1B visa with his family. He has stayed here long enough that his visa expires in a few months and will need to go back to his home country for at least a year in order to come back again on L1B. His current company will not file for an H1B for him, due to their company rules. He does not want to leave the US because he doesn't think his company will allow him to be back in the US next year to do the same work he's doing now and loves doing.

He was asking if there was any way he could change his status to H1B or something else so that he can continue to stay and work in the US. Could he find a job with another company on H1B at this time, without having to return? He does have a good contacts in the industry so getting an offer from another US company probably won't be much of a problem for him.

Any info will be appreciated.

Thanks
SujanB

lifehouse51

From what I understand, both the time spent under L and H visas (Except as dependent status) count towards the maximum duration. L1-B has a max duration of 5 years I believe, but He'll likely still have to leave the U.S. despite switching to H1B (Which has a 6-year limit). However, if he switches to some other nonimmigrant categories (Eg. F-1 Student, J-1 Exchange visitor) then he would be fine. I doubt he wanna do that.

dfjordan

I don´t know if the rules have changed or not, but when I was under an L1, my company got the lawyer to apply for the green card whilst the L1 was still valid. This apparently was normal and was done after I had been in the US for 2 years. As the green card had been applied for, I had no reasoin to leave as I had applied for a change of status. What I had to make sure I did was to apply for permission to travel out of the USA each time I needed to go to Europe on business, and this was granted automatically during the 2 years it took to get the L1 changed to a green card. It seemed that a lot depended on how good your immigration lawyer is.

lifehouse51

Not all companies are willing to sponsor the Permanent Residency Application, and that could be b/c of costs issue. The OP's friend can inquire about this, but I think the company would have offered it as an option if they would do it.

Sujan

Yep, his current (home) company that sent him to US does not want to file a GC for him..that's the problem.

Interesting because the company that he is contracted to here in the US loves him and values him as a second to none in the industry. But they can't offer him employment directly or do anything about his GC can they, since it is only his home company that would need to file for the GC, right?

lifehouse51

I'm sure they have their reasons not to file for a Employment-sponsored Permanent residency application. Perhaps they had past experience with people leaving the company after they got their Green Cards (Vs. if you use L visa, you're dependent on that employer although switching employer is possible with H-1B). Perhaps they found it hard to prove to USCIS that they had done enough advertising and not able to find someone qualified for the job (For employment-based green card, you're supposed to petition for someone to fill a job that no U.S. residents can do)

If he's confident about his qualifications and that he can get other offers, he should bargain a bit harder with the company, like actually telling them that he would consider switching job to a competitor if they don't give him more favorable terms.