Change of Status with approved H1b petition (not activated)

[kumarvojjala]

Hi,

I am currently in the USA on L1 visa. I have an approved H1b petition from the 2017 year which is valid till 2020 September. 

I have an employer (a startup product company) who can do H1b petition for me, the same employer who filed my petition in the 2017 year.

Can I apply for Change of status from L1 to H1b? I spoke to a few attorneys and got a mixed response.

 "We try to apply for a Change of Employer H-1B. This plan is not guaranteed to work because USCIS often says the approval notices are invalid if they were never "activated", but I give it a 50/50 chance. You can take your chance and give it a try"

Any suggestions from the group? I plan to apply COS along with visa interview as a backup option.

If I go with COS and if it does not get approved, will it have any impact on the visa interview? 

Thank you for any of your suggestions or information.

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by kumarvojjala

[xTDx]

13 hours ago, kumarvojjala said:

Hi,

I am currently in the USA on L1 visa. I have an approved H1b petition from the 2017 year which is valid till 2020 September. 

I have an employer (a startup product company) who can do H1b petition for me, the same employer who filed my petition in the 2017 year.

Can I apply for Change of status from L1 to H1b? I spoke to a few attorneys and got a mixed response.

 "We try to apply for a Change of Employer H-1B. This plan is not guaranteed to work because USCIS often says the approval notices are invalid if they were never "activated", but I give it a 50/50 chance. You can take your chance and give it a try"

Any suggestions from the group? I plan to apply COS along with visa interview as a backup option.

If I go with COS and if it does not get approved, will it have any impact on the visa interview? 

Thank you for any of your suggestions or information.

 

If the employer is a for profit organization, the L1 to H1 COS will not work if you never had H1b status i.e counted towards the H1b Cap. (worked for an employer and got paid while maintaining  H1b status in USA).

Your employer can file a cap-subject petition next year.