company acquisition

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avisuddu

Registered Users (C)
I have seen a similar question asked before but have not seen any definitive answers.Any thoughts would be helpful.

My company got acquired by another company recently.My 485 has been pending for more than a year now. My company name will be changed to that of the acquiring company. My job responsibilites have not changed.Will this cause any issues with my 485?

Thanks
 
Normally, it should not cause any concern.

When you get an RFE, you should provide a letter from your new company saying that it acquired the full operations of your old company.

Abnormal cases are like, when your old company had filed for bankruptcy and/or the acquisition has some special clauses that make your old company still exist but with just some divisions that do not involve your type of work(which is quite rare). Even here, if you are eliglible for AC21 then it is fine.

On a side note, check out if the lawyers have changed. I am sure they will let you know if your case is being handled by new team of lawyers. Check with them and see if this is a normal case.
 
avisuddu,

the answer to your question is a strong "it depends". You see, it is how your lawyer will handle the transition what actually matters. There are many ways, indeed, but two of the most common ones are:

1. If the new company is a full successor-of-interest from the old company, then you can amend your I-140 with the new company information. If you are still on H-1B, the H-1B can be amended just as well (not really necessary, but just to be on the safe side, especially if you want to travel using the visa).

2. Exercise AC21. Consider your new company as like you just found it, leaving the old company. Depending on a lawyer, you may want to notify INS of this. Otherwise, your lawyer may suggest to wait until an RFE comes and respond with this AC21 letter (IMHO, that's what gcwaiting007 was trying to say).

If you do neither, then it eventually becomes a problem, a kind that might be quite hard to resolve.

But do not worry. Mergers and acquisitions happen all the time and majority of immigration attorneys do know how to deal with them. Just follow up with yours and see what kind of strategy s/he adopts.
 
I was in similar situation. We had a meeting with the new immigration lawyers and they explained to us that if its past 6 months after applying for 485, you don't have to apply for an ammendment on 140. Else we had to.
 
Our company was acquired last year by another company. There were few employees who had filed 485 petition. Attorney suggested us that no action is needed if I-485 was filed more than 180 days ago (making it portable). Incase it is less than six months, Attorney placed a sworn statement on behalf of petitioner indicating that New Company has assumed all Old company's liabilities. I-140 amendment was also filed for such cases. Since rules are changing, consult your attorney.

jmd_gc
 
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