I'd just like to start off by saying hello to everyone. grin
Anyway, I've recently started work over here on a H1B, and was wondering how to make the move a little more permanent in the future if I decide I want to stay. I'm guessing a Green card would be the next step-up?? As you have to stay in the same job on a H1B I'd like to hear your experiences as much as I like my job I can't see myself doing it forever!
Cheers, Matt (ex-Yorkshire via London, now San Antonio-Texas)
Hi there, welcome to Britnet. It sounds like a greencard is what you need, but I can't really help you with the specifics as our company is doing ours for us and we're on L visas. You've come to the right place, though, and am sure someone who can answer will be along soon. smile
First of all, you can change jobs. I came here under an H-1B with one company, then moved to another. However you need to be doing the same kind of job. And there are caveats that apply to this statement if you do choose to apply for residency (below).
For me, the main reasons to go green card (aka permanent residency) are to make life easier and go beyond the six year H1 cap.
Your employer would need to help you with this process, if they have HR people or immigration attorneys that helped with your H, they are the ones to talk to.
This is the right time to get moving if you just got your H. Green card applications take A LONG TIME nowadays and you must get started as soon as possible.
Be advised though, that until fairly late in your green card application, the application is NOT portable. Move employer, start again. This will make moving around much less appealing for you.
Lots of sites out there for you to learn more on, I often read this one
http//www.murthy.com/gc.html
It is a bitch of a process and not getting any easier, I am sorry to tell you. In my case it's a toss up whether the process manages to complete before I get married next year and go another route.
H1-B is a pain when you get stuck in a job you don't like too much...
To get a green card you either need employer sponosorship, or spousal (is that even a word?) sponsorship. I don't want my employer to get mine, it's only a small company so there's no HR department to help and it would increase my obligation to stay here even longer.
Sad to say, it seems easier to get married and apply for the green card than to do it through your job. Personally I can't wait until this time next year when I can start my green card application (getting married to a US citizen - but not just for immigration purposes! eek ) I've been working at my job for 1.5 years (J1 visa) and another year on the H1-B. It's frustrating when your boss knows you can't go anywhere else and you cannot supplement your income with part-time work at all - my earnings are extremely limited at the moment.
I think if you change jobs on a H1-B then you need to find a company who is willing to start the paperwork all over again - which in this area and economic climate does not seem like an easy option. I would love to know how it worked for AdamB.
Stel.
Moving to another employer and transferring an H is a lot simpler than when you first apply for the H that brings you to the US. I believe it is also still true, thanks to legislation passed a couple of years ago, that you can actually move to the new employer once you have a receipt for the application - you don't have to wait for the thing to be processed.
This is a big difference, it took six weeks or so for mine to transfer prior to that legislation being passed.
However you do need to find a new employer that thinks you're worth the effort and a little expenditure. This is harder nowadays, since we are in lean times and it's an employers market - in what I do, anyway.
I would definitely never allow your employer to have the impression that you are a captive employee thanks to your status. A lot of the paperwork around the H visa is designed to ensure that you are not being used as cheap immigrant labor that can be taken advantage of, and it is important you reinforce that mindset upon your employer in order to remain on a level playing field and make sure you're valued for the skills that made you worth employing in the first place.
Otherwise you may end up *having* to make a move in order to get your pay scale or opportunities on a par with what domestic folks are seeing.
However you do need to find a new employer that thinks you're worth the effort and a little expenditure.
:lol: I'm reading this at my desk, listening to the radio and simultaneously looking at epinions.com.......... what an asset I am!
Aha, but remember your actual value is of secondary importance compared with your perceived worth )
I'm going to do my best to depress everyone.
I'm a H1-B and have been on the fast track green card process for nearly 2 years in California. The latest guess based on current processing rates is that I might get lucky in another 3 years. While I am waiting I'm getting the sh*t kicked out of me by my employer who know that they have H1-Bs by the short and curlies. How happy I was when my employer decided to take me off fast track and on to standard processing. The attorneys reckon that adds another 2 years at least. So I could be waiting another 5 years at current processing rate. As my employer says the good news is that the H1-B can now be extended past the 6 years, the employer just has to beg for a one year extension every year. It's been a tough experience, when I was first conned/persuaded to join this company the estimate for a green card in the hand was 18 months to 2 years tops. How things have changed. All I had to do was hang on through 2 years of abuse from the employer and I could stick 2 fingers up at them. Oh yes, did I mention the employer has decided not to pay for NFP and the kids to get a green card as they promised as part of my relocation package? B*stards.
Basically, the life of a H1-B in IT and in California is a very fragile one. Green card is your way ahead, I see you are not in California so maybe your processing times are different.
Yes, you can definitely get your H1-B transferred and I've heard the process is relatively pain free. The trick is to find an employer that needs to hire a foreigner over and above a US citizen or green card holder. Or an employer that isn't into telling permanent employees that they are no longer required at the same time as sending their jobs to India (queue the politically correct peeps who are not on the receiving end).
I have to say apart from the green card fiasco and the fact that my employers are b*stards, I love the lifestyle here and am very sad to leave. California is just amazing and Clayton is a top place to live. Would I recommend getting a H1-B at the moment? Yes, definitely. As long as you have the power to tell them to stick their job where the sun don't shine.
Venting over. Thanks for listening.
We have a good line in sending work to India and sacking the local employees too.
But then there's nothing patriotic about corporate America so this should not be surprising. Exhibit A, the car industry - if you want to buy something made in America, you're better off walking into the Honda dealers, because most of the Ford and GM products are knocked out in Mexico and Canada.
Can I just ask - when you apply for a new job on H1-B, do you tell the new employers right from the start that you will need a new visa? Or do you wait until they offer the job?
Also, do you offer to absorb the filing costs yourself?
(reaching the end of my patience here, with boss who sounds like evil twin of neilh's boss!)
Cheers!