recipe for disaster
jksongc said:
Just wondering if you guys can help me out here..
Received the I-485 Approval notices, G.C Approved while in India. Passport was not stamped yet.
Now Client wants me to join them & offers a good benefit package.
Is it good to take the offer & join them (Client) now & then get the passport stamped with the new employer name rather than the sponsoring employer name? If stamped with the sponsoring employer name then People say it is good to stick with them for a minimum period of 6 months at least before I can do the switch to a new one?
Did anyone did this before, switching to a new employer after approved & before getting stamped? Are there any implications in doing such thing at naturalization?
Thanks for your help in advance!
at the time of stamping, they usually ask if you are still employed with the sponsoring employer. if you were to say "no", your approval could be revoked. that is because your employment-based (EB) GC approval was predicated on a "future" job offer from your sponsoring employer, and which, as beneficiary, you intend to accept on a "permanent" basis. if you are no longer employed by them, then the basis of approval has been taken away.
i know my above assertion will provoke a lot of questions. let me preempt two of them:
Q1: so what about AC-21? how is it that you can change a job by invoking AC-21 portability?
the answer lies in the little-known and often misunderstood fact that the "portability", as envisaged under AC-21, applies to an approved I-140, and not I-485. the event of an I-485 having remained unadjudicated for a period of 180 calendar days or more *triggers* that portability, and if you change your employer, your new employer "inherits" your I-140 and becomes its owner, and - in effect - your sponsor.
so when your GC approval comes through, your employer AT THAT MOMENT IN TIME is your sponsoring employer, and that is the employer that immigration law expects you to work for on a permanent basis. also note the important fact that when you are approved,
your I-140 and I-485 are no longer valid, or, to use programming terminology, "go out of scope". also, therefore, the AC-21 portability and any other attributes of either are also
no longer available. outcome: you can change an employer
before your GC is approved, not afterwards. which brings us to Q2:
Q2: so am i doomed to work for my sponsoring employer for ever and ever....?
no. "permanent" does not mean "perpetual". you should have an intent to work for your sponsoring employer, and you should demonstrate such intent by working for them for a "reasonable" length of time. what is that reasonable length of time? no law or lawyer will give you a number. rule of thumb is, anything less than six months might suggest a *lack* of permanent intent. anything over a year is *probably* safe. you will be faced with this issue at the time of citizenship.
i will offer one more piece of information:
i had commented above that any attributes of both I-140 and I-485 "go out of scope" when your GC is approved; that applies to an Advance Parole as well, inasmuch as it is a benefit derived from your pending I-485. in other words, you *cannot* use it to travel to the u.s. in pratical terms, you can use it to board your flight back from india (where exit control and airline staff will have no knowledge of your GC approval), but at the port of entry at the u.s., you must declare that your 485 has been approved; whereupon, they will allow you to enter the u.s. on "deferred inspection", and you will have to present yourself to a USCIS office to get your GC stamp within a specified number of days. if you enter on AP, that entry will be deemed illegal, since you entered on an invalid document. chances are that the POE officer will know of your approval from their data retrieval system, and will process you for deferred inspection themselves, but just something to keep in mind.
hope this answers some of your questions.
