H1 B Cap Exemption

[AshaA]

Hi, I have a question on H1B. My H1B is approved on 2008 from Employer A  when I was in India. But I travelled in L1b visa from Employer B and I have worked here till 2013. After my L1B visa's maxxout and I went back to India and worked there for one half years. I came back to USA on 2015 March on L1B visa again and continuing, now I am trying for H1B. In this situation I have few questions.

1.  Can I use the old H1B if some company is willing to do a transfer?

2. Is I am CAP exempted?

3. Am I able to work for the old employer who filed my H1B?

4. Is another company is able to do a H1B transfer.

Keep in mind that I never worked for Employer A who filed my H1B on 2008.

[rksingh]

" Keep in mind that I never worked for Employer A who filed my H1B on 2008. "....This itself tells a lot. You were never in H1B status so you are not cap exempt. You will have to go thru lottery again.

1. No. Due to reason above

2. See above

3. No. You were approved in 2008 and never worked for them in H1 so they should have revoked the petition as required by law.

4. Any employer can sponsor you but you will have to go thru H1B lottery

[AshaA]

22 hours ago, AshaA said:

I checked the status of my petition in the USCIS case status page. It's still showing as approved not revoked.

 

[rksingh]

I am not sure any mechanism exists to show when an employer has requested a H1B revocation.

Regardless, we are not talking few weeks or months here....we are talking almost 10 years. The LCA itself that was the basis of your 2008 H1B has long since expired.

[AshaA]

ok, so that means CAP exemption with this unused H1B from 2008 won't work any more, right?

[pontevecchio]

L1 time plus H1 time equals 6 years at most. In order to reset the H1 time, you need to have filed a cap subject H1 after being out for 1 year. In your case, since you have been here for almost 3 years in L1 status , any H1 approved after being selected in the cap lottery in April will be for 6 years minus the time you would have spent in L1 status till October, 1 from March 2015.

Thus the existing H1 approval is irrelevant. If you had not been here in L1 at all, the existing H1 could havce potentially be used as the rule changes came in 2016 and were not applicable in 2008.