H1 5.5 Yrs And Change The Job + Give Up Green Card?

[QINGDAONYC]

Hello all,

I am on my 5.5 year of H1B. My Labor cert. was filed on August of 2005 and approved recently. the lawyer is preparing for the I-140. Since I am in EB-3 category, the final stage of I-485 is still a long long long way to go.

This employer is paying me extrmely below the martket. I did seek some other companies, and the pay is almost doubled. But my H1B has only 1.5 yrs left in terms of 6 yr cap, so they were reluctant to sponsor my H1B and suggest me to get the green card before making a move.

If I do change my H1B at this point, can i do my 7th year extention?

If I stay here one more year for the approval I-140 and 3 yr extension at this company , can I get 3 yr extension of H1B at another company at that time?

I do want to change my job, because with such low salary I am living just around the poor lines.

Thank you very much..

 

[chanduv23]

You can change jobs after your i 140 gets approved and also keep your priority date. Make sure you collect all documents from your attorney. You can get h1b extensions/transfers in any company. Then you can have your new company file for GC again as well as retain the old priority date for filing 485. So you have nothing to lose.

I changed jobs on my 6th year based and got 7th year extension based on pending L/C at BEC. The new employer filed my L/C in perm and it got approved and is filing 140 now.

Please verify this with a lawyer.

 

[gravitation]

Negotiate with your current employer first

Do great work and establish extremely good relationship with your client. Take your client into confidence that your employer/GC sponsor is paying you extremely little. Make sure your client communicates to your sponser that you're doing great work and are an important part of the team. Then, negotiate with your GC sponsor for a higher wage. Have an offer letter or two in hand (just to get a leverage in negotiation). Be polite but firm that your salary is way too low.

The above assumes that you're a consultant. You can adjust the scenario if the sponsor is your client as well. The bottomline is that if your work is great, you can negotiate from a position of strength. Don't hesitate to ask for higher wages and negotiate hard. You may still not get a market rate but might settle for a 80% of it, or whatever that will make it worthwhile for you to continue working on your current job till GC clears. The sad truth is that if you don't have the guts to ask for more money/negotiate, you WILL get less money. Read up on how to ask for a raise. Plan well. Rehearse with your friends on how to ask for raise. Be very polite and cooperative but firm. Be ready to quote the numbers on how much real salaries are for your comparative position.

Once your employer knows that you've been pushed so far back that you might be willing to change jobs to get higher salaries and if they want to keep you, they WILL pay you more. If they think you'll take it lying down, they'll pay you less. It's all business so don't take it personally.

Make sure your work is great. Never have an argument on salary issue. Be all sweet and honey but appear determined to quit if salary is not rational-sized (without actually issuing a direct threat). Never issue a threat and never tell anybody off. Convey that you love the work you do but the salary is impossible.

Research, plan and execute your negotiation well. If they give you a resonable raise, you're golden. If they just give a token increase or flately refuse, get any job and give your notice. That may be the final straw that may make them take you seriously.

Whatever you do, make decisions based on where it'll leave you 5-10 years from now, instead of immediate gratificaation, however tempting it may be.

Good Luck and make sure to let us know how it went!

 

[Chicago Desi]

You can change jobs after your i 140 gets approved and also keep your priority date. Make sure you collect all documents from your attorney. You can get h1b extensions/transfers in any company. Then you can have your new company file for GC again as well as retain the old priority date for filing 485.

Is it also valid if previous company cancels/substitutes your LC and approved i140?

 

[immi2006]

I like it

I like your clarity of thought and approach. It is very professional.

Do great work and establish extremely good relationship with your client. Take your client into confidence that your employer/GC sponser is paying you extremely little. Make sure your client communicates to your sponser that you're doing great work and are an important part of the team. Then, negotiate with your GC sponser for a higher wage. Have an offer letter or two in hand (just to get a leverage in negotiation). Be polite but firm that your salary is way too low.

The above assumes that you're a consultant. You can adjust the scenario if the sponser is your client as well. The bottomline is that if your work is great, you can negotiate from a position of strength. Don't hesitate to ask for higher wages and negotiate hard. You may still not get a market rate but might settle for a 80% of it, or whatever that will make it worthwhile for you to continue working on your current job till GC clears. The sad truth is that if you don't have the guts to ask for more money/negotiate, you WILL get less money. Read up on how to ask for a raise. Plan well. Rehearse with your friends on how to ask for raise. Be very polite and cooperative but firm. Be ready to quote the numbers on how much real salaries are for your comparative position.

Once your employer knows that you've been pushed so far back that you might be willing to change jobs to get higher salaries and if they want to keep you, they WILL pay you more. If they think you'll take it lying down, they'll pay you less. It's all business so don't take it personally.

Make sure your work is great. Never have an argument on salary issue. Be all sweet and honey but appear determined to quit if salary is not rational-sized (without actually issuing a direct threat). Never issue a threat and never tell anybody off. Convey that you love the work you do but the salary is impossible.

Research, plan and execute your negotiation well. If they give you a resonable raise, you're golden. If they just give a token increase or flately refuse, get any job and give your notice. That may be the final straw that may make them take you seriously.

Whatever you do, make decisions based on where it'll leave you 5-10 years from now, instead of immediate gratificaation, however tempting it may be.

Good Luck and make sure to let us know how it went!

 

[techy2468]

Gravitation plan sounds great.....but when it comes to implementing it being in H1 it becomes very hairy.....i had to go thru similar experience and found out that being on H1 getting jobs were not so easy.....i may have had to shift to a different location away from my family.....luckily we all called it truce....and i am glad to be in the same place with same condition(i dont want to change location right now, and there are no H1 jobs, i am looking since 3 months...)

so my suggestions is, get a offer in your hand with all terms clear wrt to H1 sponsoring and backup LC/Gc filing.......so that if anything goes sour with current employer u can make the jump immediately....

 

[nlssubbu]

Similar problem but sorted it out

Gravitation plan sounds great.....but when it comes to implementing it being in H1 it becomes very hairy.....i had to go thru similar experience and found out that being on H1 getting jobs were not so easy.....i may have had to shift to a different location away from my family.....luckily we all called it truce....and i am glad to be in the same place with same condition(i dont want to change location right now, and there are no H1 jobs, i am looking since 3 months...)

so my suggestions is, get a offer in your hand with all terms clear wrt to H1 sponsoring and backup LC/Gc filing.......so that if anything goes sour with current employer u can make the jump immediately....

I also faced a similar problem like yours in my past. When I took up the matter with my company, I came to know that though there is a wider range provided in Labor, I already reached the max on the type of designation I was working for. Though the company was willing to promote me, I was hesitant to take it due to the GC process. This was a catch 22 situation for both of us. At that time my I-140 was approved and waiting to file my I-485.

My Manager was kind enough to take this issue with the senior HR personnel, who intern look for similar labor already approved for the company. They then subsitituted me for that labor and I still retain my priority date from the earlier approved I-140.

I hope you will be able to get such a success in your case too.

 

[gravitation]

Nothing works in 100% of cases. What I've mentioned is from personal experience from a very similar situation. It doesn't hurt to ask.

Gravitation plan sounds great.....but when it comes to implementing it being in H1 it becomes very hairy.....i had to go thru similar experience and found out that being on H1 getting jobs were not so easy.....i may have had to shift to a different location away from my family.....luckily we all called it truce....and i am glad to be in the same place with same condition(i dont want to change location right now, and there are no H1 jobs, i am looking since 3 months...)

so my suggestions is, get a offer in your hand with all terms clear wrt to H1 sponsoring and backup LC/Gc filing.......so that if anything goes sour with current employer u can make the jump immediately....

 

[chanduv23]

I went through this same stuff and for me it was tragic. I was very low paid for the kind of job I was doing. When I was hired my job involved 0% travel. But without my consent I was forced to travel @ 100% over multi month schedule and being on h1b I had no choice and did that for 3 years. I had token pay hikes, no bonuses but was working @ 60 to 70 hrs a week + travelling. My only bonuses was delta skymiles and hilton honors. My company went through a merger and the acquiring company HR was not willing to negotiate my salary at all. I entered 6th year on h1b and my eb3 L/C was in BEC. I took a very bold step and gave my choices to the acquirin company HR. Either pay me $$$ or reduce my travel to 50% and have other programmers equally travel. Unfortunately my manager was doing bad that time and was under pressure and did not support my cause and played it against me and got me fired to impress the acquiring company. As I was fired in a minute, I had to immediately file for h1b transfer, I had 11 months remaining on h1b 6 years. I found a project and had a consulting company transfer my h1b and also get 7th year extension based on my old company labor and then filed for PERM under EB2. I got my extension based on old L/C and got new L/C cleared through PERM.
I am happy now because I work on %age and am making more than what I used to make. Cool consultant life, only issuee iss Ihave to be brisk inbetween projects so that I don't stay in bench for long.
So things do work out this way too

 

[goes]

Thanks for sharing your story. We H1b here lose 2 much in our life for that damn plastic card. Good luck to you!

I went through this same stuff and for me it was tragic. I was very low paid for the kind of job I was doing. When I was hired my job involved 0% travel. But without my consent I was forced to travel @ 100% over multi month schedule and being on h1b I had no choice and did that for 3 years. I had token pay hikes, no bonuses but was working @ 60 to 70 hrs a week + travelling. My only bonuses was delta skymiles and hilton honors. My company went through a merger and the acquiring company HR was not willing to negotiate my salary at all. I entered 6th year on h1b and my eb3 L/C was in BEC. I took a very bold step and gave my choices to the acquirin company HR. Either pay me $$$ or reduce my travel to 50% and have other programmers equally travel. Unfortunately my manager was doing bad that time and was under pressure and did not support my cause and played it against me and got me fired to impress the acquiring company. As I was fired in a minute, I had to immediately file for h1b transfer, I had 11 months remaining on h1b 6 years. I found a project and had a consulting company transfer my h1b and also get 7th year extension based on my old company labor and then filed for PERM under EB2. I got my extension based on old L/C and got new L/C cleared through PERM.
I am happy now because I work on %age and am making more than what I used to make. Cool consultant life, only issuee iss Ihave to be brisk inbetween projects so that I don't stay in bench for long.
So things do work out this way too