Unpaid leave before H1B Termination. Valid?

[KKK100]

HI,

I'm a full time employee working for company 'ABC' which is an established firm with more than 200K employees worldwide. My team is going thru some critical issues and have decide to decrease headcount. My supervisor has asked to me look for new opportunities and indicated that my last day at work would be Sep 30th . After repeated requests, my company has decided to extend my termination date to Oct 30th but have asked me to take unpaid leave from Oct 1st thru to Oct 28th. They have stated that I will be on playroll and will be getting paid only for the last two days (i.e. Oct 29th and 30th) to show that I was brought back to work after unpaid time. Can someone please help me with the following questions:

1. Can a H1B enployee take unpaid leave? If so, under what circumstances and for how long?

2. Legally speaking, I'm I still under active H1B thru to Oct 30th? As I'm getting paid for the last two days.

3. Does my 60 day grace period to look for new opportunities start on Sep 30th or Oct 30?

4. My employer have stated that they would provide a letter indicating my termination date as Oct 30th . Will this be sufficient for USCIS to consider my end date as Oct 30th ?

Kindly please advise. Thanks!

    

[JoeF]

Such fake unpaid leave is not allowed on H1. You have to get paid for all the time on H1.

 

[Chai]

1. An employee can be on unpaid leave and it is called "Leave of Absence". You have to submit this request to HR in order to avoid discrepancies if USCIS makes an onsite audit. There no fixed duration. 

2. Yes, your H1-B status remains active. 

3. October 30th if that's what your pay stub and termination letter mentions. 

4. Yes.