H1 B Leave of absence(unpaid vacation)


skr85

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Folks,

My H1b is approved and would be starting from Oct 1st this year on Nov this year i will be traveling to India to visit my family and to get stamping. As i only have 5 days of paid vacation I would be going on unpaid leave for 19 business days. my HR has told to fill a LOA for personal reasons for those days. my question is will it be fine to take unpaid leave for these days while on H1B or will it be a matter of concern in the future? My HR also told me that i would be still active in the company but i wont get paid for those days,just want to make sure i do the right thing here. BTW i don't work for consulting company if that matters at all.appreciate your responses.

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One is eligible to take leave of absence as long as he/she is out of USA. Now this unpaid leave (outside of US) could be of any length of time as long as you have proper reason and proper documentation and provided you will have documents for continue employment with your petitioner upon return. You don't have to be paid while you are out of USA. Of course, you can not stay in US on unpaid vacation. Those days which are spent out of USA, will not be counted against 3 years of H1b duration.

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  • 2 years later...

Are there any situations where you can take voluntary employee-initiated leave of absence without pay and still remain in the US during that time? Can you go in and out of the US while on employee-initiated leave of absence without pay? 

Shady employers have abused that, by forcing employees on LOA to avoid paying on bench.

Because of that, unpaid LOA is pretty much impossible on H1 while in the US nowadays. Pretty much the only exceptions are medical leave and pregnancy.

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Are there any situations where you can take voluntary employee-initiated leave of absence without pay and still remain in the US during that time? Can you go in and out of the US while on employee-initiated leave of absence without pay? 

With out pay only if you are on maternity leave. Otherwise NO.

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