AC-21 Portability Questions

Q

qdotlu

Registered Users (C)
I am a concurrent I-140/I-485 filer. My company's situation is not stable, therefore I've read quite a bit regarding AC-21 portability, but still not sure about certain things. Maybe some guru's here can help me.

First, here is my situation:
RD (1-140) 2/23/04
RD (I-485) 3/17/04

1) When will the AC-21 180 day clock start ticking for concurrent filers, from RD of I-140 or RD of I-485?

2) If it has passed 180 days since RD of I-485 filing, but I-140 has not been approved. Does the changing of employer (either proactively or passively) safe under the provisions of AC-21?

3) I am currently on H-1B. Suppose I changed employer using EAD, can I switch back to H-1B status later? If so, is the H-1B under the 65k yearly quota?

Thanks a lot.
 
qdotlu,

for concurrent filers AC21 is applicable as soon as I-140 is approved and I-485 is pending for 180 days since its RD.

Thus, changing your employer before your I-140 is approved would be not very wise, as you'd likely have to start the whole process (LC, I-140, I-485) all over again.

H-1B to EAD switch is accompanied by invalidation of H-1B. However, you can re-acquire H-1B status later by filing another I-129 petition for the remainder of 6 years allowed in H-1B status. This will count towards the annual H-1B cap, though.
 
When I read the following from "http://www.immihelp.com", seems like there is no clear definition whether the "I-485 pending for 180 days, but I-140 not approved yet" situation is legal or not. I am just trying to explore all the future possibilities under my current situation.



"AC 21 rule stats that greencard application would remain valid if the applicant changes employer after 180 days of I-485. When I-485 is filed concurrently with I-140, and it has been more than 6 months since I-140 is pending, and if the employee changes the employer, it is not clear whether the greencard application would still be valid. Therefore, it would be better to use caution before changing an employer in such case. "

:(
 
Since then a new regulation was published, which addresses specifically concurrent filers. Search this forum, or go back to my previous post for a summary.
 
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