jammiie

Hi all,

I originally came to the US in 2017 on an L1-B visa and received my E36 category GC at the end of October 2021.

I've been with my current employer 10 years in total across the UK & US and things are getting a little stale. I have an offer to follow an old boss to his new company but I've read conflicting things about needing to stay in the job your GC application was based on for a "reasonable" period of time, assumed to be 6-12 months.

https://www.murthy.com/2019/07/29/ch...ed-green-card/

Does anyone have any experience in a similar situation? I'm happy to wait until the end of April which would be 6 months but I don't want to risk my chances of citizenship down the line.

Pulaski

There may be a moral obligation to stay after your employer applies for a green card for you, but there is no legal obligation. Once the green card is in your hand you are a legal US permanent resident and free to move. .... Some employers may have a cost claw-back provision if you leave within a short time, say a year or so, but that doesn't mean that yo can't leave, only that you might get (some of) the cost of the application deducted from your final paycheck.

jammiie

Thanks.

So you give no weight at all to the 6-12 month recommended duration outlined in the above article I linked?

Pulaski

Not much. I am not a lawyer, but law firms do like to muddy the water to make things seem more concerning or risky than they are.

I was not aware that rescinding green cards was "a thing" if you changed jobs, but that sounds like something that lawyers would also wade in on if rescission was attempted. It sounds like you might want to document the reasons for moving, as it relates to how the timing was coincidental, and the new job was a one-off opportunity that "just happened to come along at the right time" in case things blow up several years down the road.

tht

I had read similar and been given the same advice by my employers lawyer, but I changed jobs soon after I got my GC and have since become a USC and was not asked about it, I waited beyond the minimum 5 years so my GC sponsor employer was not even listed on my N400, It was actually a related entity I moved to, but a different legal entity, so the same as moving to any other employer.

S Folinsky

I had the issue come up several times when I was in practice. The article you cite is not bad despite the fact it contains a fairly glaring error therein.

I wonder if the standards for 204(j) job portability can give guidance.

jammiie

Thanks, but isn't standards for 204(j) job portability only relevant to people with their I-485 still pending?

I am fully approved with green card in hand since October 2021.

neill

There is nothing in US law that compels you to stay with the sponsoring company. On an I-140, you became an immigrant based on the fact you intended to take up employment with your sponsor, that's all. Did you take up that employment on the day you became an immigrant?