Future Employment from India

[simba]

Hi Group

I wasnt sure if I had to post this here or in H1B since it's kind of in between both these topics.

None the less, hope I get some good advice.

I was here in US on H1B visa for 6 years and it was Nov 2010 when my H1b expired. Immediately I changed my status to H4 on my spouse's H1B visa and stayed until June 2011. Left the country, went back to India on June 2011 hoping to wait for an year outside and comeback on 2013 H1 quota.

Note here: none of us until now have applied for any GC or even started the process.

Found an employer willing to sponsor my H1b this year, submitted all my documents almost couple of months ago and kept on following up.

Unfortunately, today the 13th June 2012 I learn that the attorneys 'messed it up' and havent applied for my h1b until now and the cap for 2013 is filled.

So my employer gets back with a second option of "Apply for GC/Premium process I-140 and then apply for H1-B" which may take 5-6 months on premium per him.

My question here is that if the second option is even viable?

What are my other options besides the above or waiting for another year to apply for 2014 h1 quota?

thanks and hoping to hear back from the wises

Simba

[shandan]

You need to ask the employer what was he smoking when he advised file GC to apply for H1B. If the cap to H1b is full for the fiscal year then, unless you apply in a non-capped category like eductional professional etc, then you need to wait for the next fiscal year that would be 2014.

[simba]

Well, I wasnt really sure what he meant.. But I do have a question in this regard.

Do you think there is any other means of me starting to work with this employer after completing I-140 that may not be called "h1B"?

[shandan]

OK, here is the deal: Green Card (Labor, I-140, I-1485) and H1B are two unrelated channels.

H1B is a dual intent non-immigrant visa, and GC is a Permanent Resident Status, on either of them you can work in the US.

H1B is a temporary work visa which has a dual intent which means you are eligible to file for Permanent Residency still keeping your Non-immigrant Status.

Green Card Application is for a

future

Job which you intent to join once your Green Card is approved, you cannot file for a green card and begin working on the Job.

It is true your GC application can run in parallel while you are working in the US, but for that you need to have a valid work visa H1, L1 etc...

So under no circumstance you can be working in US just on the GC application is in progress.

This is just a 30,000 feet summary of the process there are a million different scenarios which can apply once you are in some kind of status in the US, with regards to your GC process.

In short do not get fooled by what he said, she said if you have a doubt consult a good immigration lawyer, or visit the Department of State website to get the provisions of various work visa's.