6m left on H1B and it feels like...!!!

N

newolf

Registered Users (C)
OK, here is my situation:
Worked as a clincal researcher for 1.5 yrs, then switched to residency in Neurology - all in H1B status. By the time I finish my residency, I will have only 6 months of my 6-yr H1 quota left. Not enough for extension using pending labor application I suppose... Anybody has any suggestions?

There goes some thoughts:

1- At that time, my husband will probably be doing his post-doc on a research J1 (no home country residency obligation). Can I switch to his J2, start my GC application, then 6 months after filing with labor switch to H1 which I have 6m left and then keep extending it?!

2- Can I start a GC application based on my Neurology while I'm still a 4th-year resident? (like send my application as a Neurologist to labor 6 months before finishing my residency?)

2.5- Or will I be better off if I find some physicians and ask for a GC application as a primary care physician while still a neurologiy resident and use that pending application for extension?

3- How are chance for a NIW based on that underserved stuff for a Neurologists? Only VA's?!

4- So far I've got some publications. Can increase them during my neurology residency and add some more color to my resume. Any other chances for a NIW there?

Any advice is highly appreciated!
 
Indeed, but I've heard that when I am filing my application with Labor (that's when the 6m or so recruitment is done), I should already have the requirment stated in the job description (i.e. should have my Neurology board in my hand for instance if it's a Neurologist position)... What's your idea?
Thanks again!
 
> Can I switch to his J2, start my GC application, then 6 months after
> filing with labor switch to H1 which I have 6m left and then keep
> extending it?!

I believe you can switch to J2, I wouldn't expect for you to become eligible for H1 extensions after that.
Two things:
- you want to be 200% sure that he doesn't have a foreign residency requirement. Be sure for him to get an 'advisory opinion' from the DOS waiver division before you do that. This is the only way to have on paper that he doesn't have an HRR. The stamp in the passport and the the stuff on his DS2091 are meaningless in that regard, they are filled out by the sponsor. In the end, only DOS's opinion counts.
- You will be starting as an attending, he will be a postdoc. This might cause the following problem: The J2 is not allowed to work in order to make 'a contribution to the living expenses of the J1' (his meager postdoc stipend is supposed to take care of that). It sounds very unamerican, but there is actually a cap on how much the J2 is allowed to earn, and it is definitely less than a standard neuro attending salary.


> 2- Can I start a GC application based on my Neurology while I'm
> still a 4th-year resident?

No and maybe.
You must have the qualifications listed on the ETA750 on the DAY that the LC is put in the mail. As a result:
- if your employer recruits for: Neurologist, board eligible in for the ABN, completed a residency, valid Montana medical license, proficient and certified to do EMG, run a stroke unit blablabla 132k p.a. (level2) ----> Plus: recruitment will be easy, bc only a couple of people will be eligible to apply for the job, and the ones who are will know that the ad is phony. Minus: you can only file after you graduate residency.
- if your employer recruits for: Physician, general practice, must have Montana medical license. 90k p.a. (level1) ---> Minus: recruitment will be hard, every idiot fired by even the VA will apply in the hopes to get that low-end job. Plus: you can file after you finished internship. Minus: USCIS could smell the fishy nature of this deal and deny your I140.

> application as a primary care physician while still a neurologiy resident
> and use that pending application for extension?

For that purpose, if you don't actually intend to file an I140 based on it, it is maybe a good idea. After you have adjusted status under your neurologist labor cert, you can sell it to one of your junior residents for a labor substitution !

> 3- How are chance for a NIW based on that underserved stuff
> for a Neurologists? Only VA's?!

Yep, only VA (at least officially)

BUT: I have personally helped to draft an NIW for a non-primary care colleague which got approved after an RFE. The RFE was for a department of health letter. The RFE told me a couple of things:
-- They either never read the petition,
-- didn't understand what was written in it
-- there are true morons working at USCIS
-- they have in fact only 6 minutes to approve a case or issue an RFE
-- or maybe they do have some leeway to decide on these applications.

In addition, another colleague of mine who worked at an Ivy league schools medical center during his VA waiver job, got an NIW approved independently from the VA and the underserved thing. (And that with like two papers in the 'soutwestcentralindian medical weekly' or something like that, just so say it was not JAMA.)

But I wouldn't bank on it.

A former neuro colleague of mine managed to get an O1 for a faculty position at a state medical school in the Northeast. (Now, in the midwest it is apparently close to impossible to get O1s and EA petitions for physicians approved, in the VSC jurisdiction I know people who had O1s for their residency and EB-1 OR green-cards as chief residents !)

The support of the medschool administration/dean is key in these cases.

> Can increase them during my neurology residency and add some
> more color to my resume. Any other chances for a NIW there?

Publish like crazy ! Every weird presentation of something common can add bulk (if not quality) to your CV. Just today, I received reprints for a paper my wife and I managed to get into a journal outside of either of our specialties.

Of course, a first authorship in NEJM is worth more on an EA or NIW petition than 'proctology weekly'. But everything counts. The neuro colleague on the O1 I mentioned had most of her papers in small derm journals go figure!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow! I'm totally impressed by your detailed and extremely informative response. I owe you one!

Also and if I may, I didn't quite catch you on the J2 visa to H1/GC issue... If I go to J2 (or even a J1 as a post-doc or researcher myself - all with no HRR) after finishing my residency and sending my GC application (as a Neurologist) to Labor, wait for 6 months, and then change my status to H1 (of which I will have still some 6 months left then), and after the 6 months with my 1-year pending GC application keep my H1 visa extedning till (hopefully) GC gets approved, will it work?! Remember that my major issue is that I will only have 6 months of my H1 quota left by the time I graduate as a Neurologist. I need at least 6 months more, and all these are just to buy me some time... In short, is it possible to file GC with Labor while on J status (no HRR)?

If only we - the immigrant physicans in the US - were not to deal with so many immigration bureucracy and hurdles, I bet we would have found the cure for cancer, alzheimer, and all other health problems of mankind by now! It really does drain lots of time and energy - not to mention money...

Thanks again.
 
Please be sure and confirm if you really want to change the H1 to j2 . As anything to J2 requires 2 year Home rule agreementexcept a few cases. That is one visa you should not get unless you have no other choice.There are still a lot of jobs available for neurology, The important thing is to get an extension on H1b so you need a prospective employer .
 
> will have still some 6 months left then), and after the 6 months
> with my 1-year pending GC application keep my H1 visa extedning
> till (hopefully) GC gets approved, will it work?!

I don't know, but I don't think so. The H1 extension is meant for people to CONTINUE on H1 until their GC is through. I don't think they will allow you to switch to J1 or J2 and then apply for the extension. But that is just my guess and nothing I ever had to look into.

The second part of my reply to that question was meant to emphasize the potential grave pitfalls of such an approach: 1. a HRR attached to your husbands J1 that he doesn't even know about 2. the issue with your salary probably beeing triple of his salary.

> I need at least 6 months more, and all these are just to buy me
> some time... In short, is it possible to file GC with Labor while on J
> status (no HRR)?

Realistically you should look for a longer timeframe.

Two more possibilities:
-- After 1 year either outside of the US your H1b clock is reset !
-- As graduate of a US residency, there are possibilities to work in underserved areas of certain provinces of Canada with a temporary medical license (or do a fellowship at one of their medical centers). This would also allow you to re-set your H1b clock.

A fresh H1b would give you 6+ years to get your GC. If you make the GC process part of your deal with whatever clinic/practice you join, you have ample time in even the most 'constipated' states. (Go to the upper midwest. LC's take only a couple of months there and there are many large clinic organizations very familiar with all the immigration crap for their canadian docs)

> If only we - the immigrant physicans in the US - were not to deal
> with so many immigration bureucracy and hurdles,

Well, if you think the buerocratic hurdles here in the US are high, try train and stay in the UK for good. Or try to get into any of the other european nations. The pathway in the US is a difficult one, but everyone I know who wanted to stay managed to do so. Sometimes over detours including the prairie of South Dakota, but in the end it will work out. In some of the other places I mentioned, the buerocracy is even weirder and people are regularly sent home for good at the end of their training.

> I bet we would have found the cure for cancer, alzheimer, and
> all other health problems of mankind by now!

Actually, foreign born researchers are doing just that. With such a small number of smart americans going into science, a majority of the PhD and post-Doc level research these days is people not named 'joe' or 'buddy'. I am at a small medical school in the Northeast right now, if they wanted they could hold the basic courses for the PhD students in chinese and nobody would miss a word.

> It really does drain lots of time and energy - not to mention money...

When I came to this country:
- The only lawyer I had ever met was a second degree cousins husband.
- I had 2 aluminum trunks full of personal possessions
- I had a bicycle
- No debt
- My BMI was 20.1

Now, not so many years later:
- At any given time, I have at least two attorneys on my payroll
- A 15ft Penske with car-carrier is necessary to transport all my crap
- I have three cars (only one of them in semi-decent shape)
- Oodles of debt.
- My BMI has crept up to 24.7

(I think if I add on some more debt increase my BMI over 29, they will HAVE to give me honorary citizenship.)
 
Well, what can I say? My life was defenitely more luxorious back home than the crap I'm going through now, but I was fed up with the wide-spred persecution and oppression of a typic corrupted and fundamentalist "3rd" world dictatorship and that made me hit the road (just to find out that there are just as many crazy fundametalists here in the US - apparantly, whereever you go, the sky is the same colour!)
So, that further complicates my issue: Obviously, I can't consider going back home at any cost. Moreover, my home country is "known to the US department of states to harbor terrorism". That means that if I ever exit the US, my chances for reentry will be extremely low - some friends have been waiting 2-3 years for their background check and still no response!
I don't know... I somehow have to buy that 6 months... Either a J, or F or X! Don't miracles happen any more?!
 
Frankly, I don't think the deal with switching into a different category and then back into an H1 extension will work.

Probably getting an LC filed way before you finish residency is probably your best bet. This can be for 'medical assistant' or something of that manner, if you are in a state that still accepts 'regular filing' LC's, 2 years will pass before anyone looks at that application anyway.

Think about filing for canadian PR. It costs something like CAN 550 for the filing (which you can do yourself) and takes 2 years or so. This way you can move to Canada for an epilepsy fellowship and re-enter the US on a fresh H1b.
 
Again, leaving the US and even going to Canada is not an option for me as I explained. I'd probably go for the other option (filing with Labor while a resident as a non-neurologist)... Thanks again. :)
 
> I'd probably go for the other option (filing with Labor while a
> resident as a non-neurologist)... Thanks again.

Talk to people who own a practice, (at this point it doesn't matter what size).

All they have to do is to file the ETA750A/B form with the state labor department (I don't know what the filing fee for that would be). The receipt for that filing is what you need for your H1b extension. They don't have to actually hire you or even file an I140. Filing an I140 is a big step for a corporation because they have to divulge internal financials etc. Filing a LC for 'physician general practice' to help out in their practice with seeing intake patients, medication refills etc. doesn't create any legal pitfalls for them.

By the way, you can file an EB-1 EA or non-underserved EB2-NIW petition yourself ($165 filing fee). There are some DIY kits out there with sample petitions etc.
You were smart enough to make it into medschool in your dictatorial home country and a US residency. Drafting an EA or NIW petition without a lawyer should be in the realm of your intellectual capabilities.

At most processing centers it takes 12-15 months until you either receive a 'request for additional evidence' (good, means 4-5 more months of stalling), an approval (good, it means you have a green-card) or direct denial (bad, it means you lost your H1b extension unless you have an LC to fall back upon).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks very much for sharing all this Hadron. I'll do it, and yes, you are right: it is not a big deal in comparison to what I (and most probably majority of other guys around here) have been through so far. Let's show the world the stuff we're made of!! Once again, thanks very much.

Season's greeting to all!
 
H1b and drafting an ALC petition

newolf said:
Thanks very much for sharing all this Hadron. I'll do it, and yes, you are right: it is not a big deal in comparison to what I (and most probably majority of other guys around here) have been through so far. Let's show the world the stuff we're made of!! Once again, thanks very much.

Season's greeting to all!
Click to expand...

yes! agreed.
If you need help drafting your ALC/H1B petition, let me know.
 
Thanks so much to you too "J1victim". I really do appreciate it and I'll let you know then.

Best,
Newolf
 
> Thanks very much for sharing all this Hadron. I'll do it,
> and yes, you are right:

Please, please, talk to a knowledgeable immigration attorney familiar with physician immigration issues before you do anything. My knowledge is based on limited experience and anecdotal reports (kind of like surgical literature).
 
can you work on after you file an EB-1 EA or non-underserved EB2-NIW petition yourself if your H1b is used for 6 years, and you are waiting longer?
 
> can you work on after you file an EB-1 EA or non-underserved
> EB2-NIW petition yourself if your H1b is used for 6
> years, and you are waiting longer?

In order to get a H1b extension, you need to have either a pending I140 for more than a year or a pending LC for more than a year.

If you don't have an H1b (e.g. bc you are venturing out yourself), you would have to file a I485 and EAD. But then, you status is somewhat insecure because a direct denial (apparently more and more common in NIW cases) puts you right out of status.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top