There was never a mention of six month period
Why is everyone fixated on the 6-month period? I read through the document, and what an excellent one that is. It simply illustrates a point stating six months as an example, it could have been 5 or even 7 months. The author simply points out the fact that with every passing day after you get the coveted PR status, your deparature from the sponsoring company loses steam of an "intention of fraud". If INS ever wants to persue the case, say after 6 months, they will have to establish that you had the intention to join the new company before your case was approved and you simply waited till it was approved. And how do they know that? Perhaps by unearthing some email you might have sent to the new company several months ago. So just because you left your sponsoring company 6 months after the GC does not mean that you will be ok; you will actually be in deep waters. On the other hand, say you emailed your new employer one month after the approval and your actual joining happened T+6 months. It simply means you did not have the abandonment intention when your case ws approved but later you changed your mind. INS will have a lesser case against you. Now say that it happens T+6 months for your email and T+7 months when you actually join. Does it mean that you will be ok? Hardly. It merely means INS will have an even weaker case against you. The point is you can leave your company ten years after your GC is approved, but INS can easily draw up a case against you stating that you did not fulfill your promise of maintaining a long-term relationship with your sponsor. However, it\'s case will be very weak after ten years as opposed to, say, six months. So six months is NOT a threshold value of anything and it certainly does not help to count it from Approval Date, Stamping Date or Physical card Receipt Date? When push comes to shove, if INS actually brings a case of fraud against you, all you need to know is
1. With every passing day since the approval date, your case would be stronger.
2. The more you account for a reason for the switch, economic being the most important one, the better it is. If you switch with no percetible increase in salary, your case is weak.
3. Most important, no matter how strong your case is, it\'s a battle between lawyers. Face the facts, America is about litigations and sonner or later you have to face it to realize the American dream.
However, two points still unclear still are:
1. As per AC21 law, you can switch companies BEFORE the approval (after 180 days of notice date) and still will be ok, but you can\'t justify the necessity to switch AFTER the approval process. IT seeems plain unfair to me and I am sure with a good lawyer this can be beaten.
2. Is your case going to be stronger if you are with the sponsoring company a long time BEFORE the approval and switch immediately after the approval?