Medical leave on h1b while traveling to India and reentry to the US.

T

taxsaver

Registered Users (C)
Hi,
I have a complicated case and would much appreciate any opinions. I am on H1b working with a genuine US employer in California. My stamping was done in Jan 2010. I traveled to India on march 04 for vacation and met with a major accident and underwent surgeries in India. I have been in India since. My medical condition here has deteriorated and I need to get new surgeries done, which I want to get done from the US because of (hopefully) better medical care. I cannot walk and have to use crutches or a wheelchair. Even after coming back to US I will be on bed rest and cannot resume my work for 2 months after the surgery. I am on unpaid leave from my US employer. Some questions regarding the same.

1) Regarding reentry into the US. Since I have been out of US for 3.5 months and am on a wheelchair, the immigration officer can ask if I am coming back for work or medication. Should I tell him the truth that I am coming for surgery and will be only able to join work 2 months later..? Will that be a problem since H1B is a work visa, not for medication?
2) What documents should I get from my employer to enable smoother reentry into US.
3) I heard that one cannot remain unpaid while on H1b. So will I be violating my visa status for the 2 months I will be not-working (after the surgery)? Note that I am on unpaid leave from my US employer, but since I am on short-term-disability-leave, I am getting paid 60% of my salary from UNUM, who is my companies disability claims administrator. Will the answer change if UNUM stops paying me (since getting disability claims is shaky) in the middle?


Thanks very much for your responses. Appreciate it!

-DJ
 
Some more information:
1) I have a genuine employer(5000+employees) and my manager is supporting me through this. He is willing to wait for a few more months and take me back once i get better.
2) I am technically still employed with the company and on unpaid short term disability leave with my employer. UNUM, is my employers disability provider and will pay me 60% of my salary uptill 1 year(which is still 8 months to go). UNUM has been paying the checks regularly till now.

My main question still remains if i can use my h1b to re-enter the US for medical treatment?

google for "leave of absence on h1b murthy" and click on the third link on murthy forums titled "Some info: unpaid leave...."

Reading the above link seems to suggest:
1) to maintain h1b, it is NOT necessary to get paid, only to maintain the employer-employee relationship, which my company is willing to.
2) If this accident happened to me in the US, then that would not have affected my h1b.

Now, since the accident happened to me while travelling to India, there are 2 ways to look at it:
1) Bad: H1b is only for work and i cannot use it to re-enter US for surgery.
2) Good: I am on continous disability leave, so havent violated my h1b, so can use my h1b to go to US and get treated.

I'm not sure which is the right perspective? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Also, reading above link, I figure that I should be ok on my original Q#3, since it looks like once you are in the US, you dont violate status on medical leave on h1b...

Thanks again,

-DJ
 
Since you are on a medical leave of absence, your H1 is still valid. You should state that you are coming to return to work, not just get treatment. If you got better, you would return to work, won't you?
 
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