H1 approved but employer is not sharing I797 notice

[Kumar438]

Hello,

I came to US on F2 and applied for H1 in last April. My H1 was approved on Oct 2nd. I have been asking my employer for I797 notice since 20 days but employer keeps saying he didn't receive notice yet. He doesn't respond whenever I ask him to apply for duplicate copy. I feel he is not willing to share I797 notice as he thinks that I would switch employer which is not in my mind but not sure how he got that impression.

I couldn't apply for SSN as I don't have my notice with me so payroll is also not generated. It's already been more than a month since my H1 approval. When I ask my employer about payroll issue, he says payroll need not be generated until I get SSN. My question is, will I go out of status if payroll is not generated soon?

Please advise me how to handle this situation.

[shandan]

I-797 is supposed to be with the Employer, and if it came with attached I-94, they should be sharing that with you, as it is what keeps you in-status in US.

 

Now for the purposes of SSN and Drivers License or others where you need the I-797, you can ask the employer to loan you the I-797 and once your application is done send it back to them. At least that is what I did when I was in similar situation, and it worked. Most employers are skeptical about your intentions, and in most cases with no fault of yours but since there are so many cases out there you cannot blame them completely either, neither party is completely clean.

 

Ask them with details as to why you need it and that you'll return it back to them, hopefully that should do the trick.

 

Good Luck.

[JoeF]

If it was a COS, the employer needs to provide you the I-94 at the bottom of the approval notice.

Next to that is a stub with the case number and all the status information. That is for you as well.

If the employer doesn't want to give that to you, file a complaint with DOL on form WH4.

And, not yet having the SSN is not an excuse for not getting paid. Modern payroll systems can handle that situation just fine.

You absolutely need to get paid, even if you don't have the SSN yet. Again, file a WH4 if you didn't get paid. The DOL will make the employer pay you.

And find a better employer, one who follows the laws!