Maternity in H1b

[deepthis]

All,

I am currently working on H1b from past 3 years, I am expecting now, what are the maternity options for people working on h1b.

If I change to h4 for 3-4 months and then would like to come back on h1, will it be a new h1 application again?

Please let me know the options I can avail.

Thanks in advance

[hpagey]

What do you mean by maternity options? If it is a legitimate break it should be fine i guess.

[livliv]

You can get an unpaid leave for maternity (if paid leave is not available) for a reasonable period (12 weeks?) and remain in H1 status. If properly documented it will not cause any out of status problems.

If you choose to change to H4, any subsequent H1 petitions will not fall under annual cap because you are already cap-counted.