Employment time gap

L

Lydialuna

New Member
I'm teaching at a university and accepted a job offer from another university. Most full-time tenure-track positions are on a nine-month contract, which means that there might be a three months' gap. How is this going to affect my status? The new employer is filing the new petition for me soon but I'm still concerned about the gap. My questions are:

1. My contract date ends on 5/15, but the payroll will be until 6/30 from my current employer. Does this mean that my current H1B status will keep valid until 6/30?

2. If the new employer files the petition with the validation date starting from 8/1/2008. Am I out of status during that time gap (say either 5/16 or 6/30 to 7/31)? If so how should I handle it? I don't want to go back to my home country in the summer because it's so much hassle to do it.

Thanks a lot for any help!

Thanks a lot!
 
Yes, you would be out of status. You can get a B-2 visa and request AOS or re-enter on B until your new petition is read (and re-enter or AOS to H). Its complicated but the only way to avoid being out of status ...
 
1. My contract date ends on 5/15, but the payroll will be until 6/30 from my current employer. Does this mean that my current H1B status will keep valid until 6/30?

your current H1B will not be valid. u can be on payroll though.

2. If the new employer files the petition with the validation date starting from 8/1/2008. Am I out of status during that time gap (say either 5/16 or 6/30 to 7/31)? If so how should I handle it? I don't want to go back to my home country in the summer because it's so much hassle to do it.

i went thru this too. I applied for H1 extension for 12 days between 2 jobs (I had some vacation time with previous employer left...used this for extending 12 days of employment up to the start date of 2nd job). u shud get a valid status in between 2 jobs or leave the country --> to prevent future problems with immigration.
 
How is your health insurance during the summer normally handled? Was this a visiting, post doc, or regular appointment? Do you have a summer research support without a signed contract that could be formalized?

If you have an optional summer support from your new university, you could use it this summer and work to get the summer contract for subsequent summers.

Although the contracts are for 9/10 months, it is unreasonable that all of the H1B faculty are out of status until the start of the fall semester. It may depend on the type of appointment. FYI, many universities permit payment for 9 months in 12 installments if the payment verses contract turns out to be the defining issue.

The personnel office at your new university should be able to answer these questions for you.
 
Thank you very much for the reply! It's a nine month contract but I was kept employed in previous summers. But this summer they pay me until 6/30/2008 and after that I have to use COBRA for health insurance.

This really confused me because when I accepted the new job offer I didn't realize that there are so many issues like this.

I'll choose three options:

1. talk to the current employer to see if it's possible to extend the contract until 8/14.
2. talk to the future employer to see if it's possible to offer me a summer full-time/part-time job.
3. apply for the B-2 visa.

I hate the nine-month contract of university faculty! Wish I could get a green card soon so that I don't need to worry about these issues.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top