7th year H1b extension. Please advise.

[mgc2000]

Hello,

My 6 years of H1b expires on Sep. 30, 2006. My labor certification (with priority date July 2004) has been pending at the backlog center. My company is willing to apply for the 7th year H1b extension. I have some questions and I would really appreciate your advice and suggestions:

1. How early can I apply for the 7th year extension ? I have heard that one can apply as early as 6 months. Is this true ?

2. I have spent 2.5 months outside the USA on vacation. I have heard that it is possible to recapture time spent outside the USA. Is this true ? Should I apply for the recapture along with 7th year extension or should I do this separately ?

3. If the labor certification is denied after the 7th year extension is approved, will this invalidate my H1b status ?

4. My company has offices in several states. Is it possible for me to move to another job location ? Do I need to update my H1b with new location ? What effect it may have on my labor certification ?

Thank you very much.

 

[EricS]

Hello,

My 6 years of H1b expires on Sep. 30, 2006. My labor certification (with priority date July 2004) has been pending at the backlog center. My company is willing to apply for the 7th year H1b extension. I have some questions and I would really appreciate your advice and suggestions:

1. How early can I apply for the 7th year extension ? I have heard that one can apply as early as 6 months. Is this true ?

True, no harm in applying 6 months in advance, but my attorney advised me to do it only 4 months in advance.

2. I have spent 2.5 months outside the USA on vacation. I have heard that it is possible to recapture time spent outside the USA. Is this true ?

Yes.

Should I apply for the recapture along with 7th year extension or should I do this separately ?

IMO, along with 7th year ext.

3. If the labor certification is denied after the 7th year extension is approved, will this invalidate my H1b status ?

No, H1 will remain valid.

4. My company has offices in several states. Is it possible for me to move to another job location ? Do I need to update my H1b with new location ?

Yes, need to file new LCA (not LC) or amend it. LCA is used for H1 and LC for GC.

What effect it may have on my labor certification ?

Your LC is filed for a particular job offer in a particular location. If that job offer remain valid then once your GC is approved, you can come join this position for few months and then move again if you want to.

Thank you very much.

 

[mgc2000]

Thank you

Eric,

Thank you very much for the quick and thorough response. I am new to
this website and I felt very good to find helpful information.
I would like to give you a background of my case.

I came to USA as a F-1 student in 1998. After graduation in 2000,
I joined a software company. The company said that they will sponsor my
green card. The company's attorney filed an RIR labor certification in
March 2001. After the terrible events of Sept. 11 and the economic downturn,
my company withdrew the RIR application. Their reason was the application will
fail due to huge number of IT layoffs during the time. The attorney then
filed an EB2 traditional labor cert. application in March 2002. The case got
stuck in the department of labor for a long time

My company after a year changed immigration lawyer. The new lawyer filed an
EB3 RIR in July 2004. Recently, the traditional case was opened by
the backlog center. The backlog center asked my employer if they intend to
continue or close the case. Due to some mysterious reason my company decided to
close the case. The lawyer said that the case had very slim chance of approval.
I was depending on this case since it had a old priority date which would
help me a lot with visa retrogression.

Now my 6 year of H1b is approaching in Sep. 30th. My employer said that they
will file for the 7th year extension but with recent layoffs I am quite
worried. Also, my pending RIR case has priority date of 2004 and this may
prevent me from filing I-485 for several years.

I am thinking of several options such as filing a PERM case at my own expense,
getting a new job, pre-approved labor, etc. But, I am also concerned about my
H1b 7th year extension. So, any suggestion and/or advice on my case would be
really appreciated.

Thank you once again.

 

[EricS]

Oh man, your old LCs should not have been withdrawn. Anyway, what is done is done. This is what I suggest you should do. It also depend if your employer will agree or not.

> File a new LC in PERM for EB2. If you can't justify EB2 then don't bother, your existing LC with PD 2004 is fine.

> Now lets say you can file this EB2 LC in PERM. Once it gets approved, file 140 on it. You will not be able to file 485 as the PD will not be current.

> Meanwhile your EB3 LC (PD 2004) will get approved (hopefully). File 140 on that one also.

> Once both 140s are approved, you can transfer PD from EB3 case to the new one that is in EB2. So EB2 with PD 2004 has a better chance of becoming current tha tthe EB3. Then according to the situation, you can file 485 on EB2 140.

It will also depend on how the PDs progress. To learn more about transfer of PD btwn 2 approved 140s, search for Pearson Memo and read it.

Your pending LC for EB3 should be fine for your 7th year ext., I do not see much issue with that.

 

[lost2000]

Good Luck!

At least ur employer was willing to help file... mine was the exception... lots of excuses given. Up till today when I'm already in my 6th year, they still give lots of excuses to help.

My point is, there are ppl out there in worser scenario than you, so CHEERS!
Good Luck in all your applications!