EAD or H1B?

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microdev1

Registered Users (C)
I am at a threshold where I have to change my employer.
My I-140 is approved and I-485 pending since 14 months.
I got my EAD renewed last week.
So I can use EAD for all purposes.
But is there any way to stick onto H1B without using EAD at all.
I know I have to do H1B transfer to join another employer in this case.
But will this effect my existing green card process?
What if I do H1B transfer and my present employer revoke my I-140 approval.
But confused about next step.. What should I do?
 
Iam on my 8th year extension and although I have EAD and AP I use my H1 visa for employment. Actually my company wants me to do that and they pay for H1 . I pay for EAD and AP .

Why ?
Because my employer says that if for some reason my case gets rejected instead of being out of status immediately I can work on the H1 visa until the validty . Usually these extensions are for one year only .
 
I have a different take on the above response. If for some reason your I-485 is denied while you are on your 8th year extenstion, you would then have to come to terms with the grappling situtation of a future back in your home country. In such a situtation, staying on H1 is like living life on borrowed time for a few more months, which in my view is just putting off the inevitable.

Believe me, when your GC is denied with no recourse, staying in this country for a few more months will be the last thing on your mind.
 
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My suggestion is to stay on H1 till you get your green card. If you change to EAD and your employer revokes I-140, then you will be in trouble. If you change employers and get a new H1, and your old employer revokes I-140 then you cannot go ahead with your green card process. My best bet would be to stay with the current employer's H1 (this again depends on whether you are in good terms with your employer so that he will not revoke your I-140 even if you change employers).
 
My $0.02

For the original poster, revoking the underlying I-140 will not have any implications because the I-485 has been pending for over 180 days. The new AC21 memo that has come out is very explicit in what is and is not possible with different I-140/I-485 combinations. Given all of this, it is possible that something will go wrong with the I-485 because nothing is done till its done, but the probability of it happening is very low. As long as the new job has the same DOT/OES code, things should be fine.

Of course the usual disclaimers apply :) Good luck with your decision.
 
I usually recommend staying on H1 over EAD, but my reasons may differ a little. Having gone through the 485 application process the hard way, working on EAD meant being at the mercy of the INS. EAD's were expected to be renewed on a yearly basis. Due to long processing lines, it very often meant that while your current EAD expired, you still hadn't received a new EAD, and would have to make the trip to the service centre at 4:00 am to get a interim EAD.

Call me cautious, but working on H1 (a dual purpose visa) never hurt anyone. To answer someone's point above about it not being an issue if 485 is denied and you are asked to move, I beg to differ. If your 485 is denied and you have not H1 to fall back on, then you have only two options open, 1. File an appeal, 2. Leave the country inside 30 days. If you plan to wrap things up here before moving out for good, you can very well imagine how much having an extra month of buffer time means, it is the difference between a distress sale and a profitable one.

Always work on H1 and keep extending it even if you have to pay the transfer fee and processing cost over working on EAD, UNLESS you plan to switch jobs to a completely different line. But that is a whole new post.
 
I understand the advantages of sticking with existing employer in H1B.
I actually wanted to know that if I change employer using H1B transfer rather than using EAD, will it affect my I-485 processing knowing that my I-485 is pending well over 180 days and I-140 is approved.
 
No. The I-485 processing will continue. The only effect might be of sending in AC21 proactively instead of getting an RFE for EVL. This is just conjecture though based on the fact that USCIS might have applications indexed by name. Someone else might know if that is the case.
 
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