Some Information
All,
Not to try scare anybody nor I agree this comments totally, just for your information. You can check by yourself on
http://www.immihelp.com/gc/employment/greencard.html
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Sponsoring Employer
All employment based greencard applicants must keep on working for the sponsoring employer even after applying for adjustment of status and even if they have received. EB1 petitions with "persons of extraordinary ability" and self-petitioned NIW beneficiary may change employers(because job offer is not required under those categories), while an employer-petitioned beneficiary may not(while job offer is required). After getting EAD, he/she can do any other part-time job or even open a business as long as he/she keeps working for the sponsoring employer. But the primary applicant's dependents can work for any employer, as long as he/she(dependent) himself/herself has got EAD and the primary applicant's application for AOS is still pending.
The employee should work not only for the same employer but also keep doing the original job offered. If job title or job duties change significantly, it is considered a job change and new labor certification is required and hence new I-140 is also required. Please note that normal raises in salary are not considered job change.
In today's dynamic market, many people want to know how long does an employee who receives employment based greencard needs to work for the same employer after getting he greencard. There is no precise answer to this question. The law say that if the employee left within 2 years, the employee has burden to prove that he/she accepted the job offer in good faith and didn't intend to leave at the time of accepting permanent residentship. If it is more than 2 years, the burden comes to USCIS to prove that. The theory behind greencard through offer of employment is that an employee is accepting a job on a "permanent" basis. But "permanent" obviously does not mean for ever as it does not make sense. But it also does not mean that the person leaves the company the day he/she gets green card. Each case would be different depending upon employee-employer relationship. But in general, staying with the same company for about 6 months to 1 year should be enough indication of permanency. "Permanent" means that, at the time the employee becomes a lawful permanent resident, neither the employer nor the employee have any plans to change the employment relationship described in the labor certification or I-140 petition. If you leave too soon, USCIS may claim that you did not intend to take the job up on a "permanent" basis. If the employer(or even a jealous co-worker)is dissatisfied with yourself leaving too soon, they can file a complaint with USCIS and USCIS may either take any action or not depending upon the circumstances. USCIS also may find about yourself leaving too soon while later applying for Citizenship or petitioning for relatives.
If USCIS finds out that the employee was just waiting for his/her immigration to be complete before jumping to a new job, then they are likely to charge fraud. If, on the other hand, it appears that the employee really did intend to stay with the petitioning employer indefinitely at the time of immigrating, but a legitimate reason later developed for leaving(like employer's business took an unexpected downturn and the employer had to lay off workers), then there should be no problem.
Even if the employer does not mind employee leaving immediately after getting the green card, it is not OK for USCIS. Both employer and employee should have good faith to have that employer/employee relationship on a "permanent" basis.
Until the person gets the greencard, if he/she is layed-off at any time, he/she would have to start the greencard process again. If the labor certificate is approved, it won't be valid as it is for job in future and that job must be available now, which is not the case. So labor certificate would be invalid. Similarly I-140 also would be invalid, if it has been approved. The person can use his/her priority date from the previous company if his/her I-140 was approved before he/she got layed-off. Even if the person has applied for adjustment of status and received EAD, he/she can only work additionally for any other employer as long as he/she keeps working for the sponsoring employer. So if he get laid off, everything including his/her H1B visa, labor certification, I-140, I-485 application, EAD, AP are invalid. If the person is maintaining valid non-immigrant status, he/she has 10 days to leave the country . If the person is on EAD/AP, he/she has to immediately leave the country.
For labor certification based green card, if the employee gets transferred from the original job location outside the normal commuting distance(approximately 35 miles), new labor certification is needed even if the job duties remain same. For non-labor certification based green card, transfer to different location is fine as long as the job duties remain same.
If the sponsoring employer simply changes its name to better reflect the business or for other similar business and every thing else remains same, no new procedure is required. Everything remains same as earlier. But in all the subsequent paperwork, standard letter regarding the name change should be included.
If the sponsoring employer gets merged or gets bought by another company, whether the whole green card needs to be done again or not depends upon the nature of the merger or buy. If the new company is the successor of interest and takes over everything and your job duties remain same at the same location(job location change within the commuting distance of original job location is fine), the green card process does not need to be done again, otherwise everything needs to be done from scratch. (If I-140 is approved, the previous priority date can be used, though).
