NKabadi
Taken from USVISANEWS.COM Web site: For complete article
go to:
http://www.usvisanews.com/faq-chemployers.html#chemployers-c
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First a few basic concepts:
The employer of an H-1B visa holder must notify the INS in the event of any "material change in employment," which includes relocation to a worksite in a different town, even if for the same employer, unless such relocation was addressed in the filing of the initial I-129 petition. This notification involves a new petition.
Remember: while your H-1B is a petition stating your employment relationship NOW, the green card process -- from Labor Certification through the final Adjustment of Status interview -- is about LATER. The process is a manifestation of the INTENT your employer has to hire you on a full-time, permanent basis ONCE YOUR GREEN CARD IS APPROVED and of your INTENT to join the employer on a full-time, permanent basis ONCE YOUR GREEN CARD IS APPROVED. My point for wording it this particular way: while it is NORMAL to keep working for the employer sponsoring your green card, it is not essential during the time the adjustment is pending. If your employer approves, you can work for another company -- shoot, you can cook fries at McDonalds(!) -- AFTER the adjustment is filed up until the final interview. AT THAT TIME, however, you must intend to rejoin your employer on a full-time basis. INTENT is what must be documented to insure that there is a record that your departure is TEMPORARY, that you will be rejoining the company, and that both you and the company are keeping the employment relationship alive.
ONLY FOR PERSONS WHO STILL HAVE THE LABOR CERT PENDING OR ARE AWAITING PRIORITY DATES AND HAVE NOT YET FILED FOR ADJUSTMENT:
If you feel your job may not be around when the time comes for the green card, this is a critical issue you need to address frankly with your employer. In our experience, reputable employers are generally sensitive to the long delays in immigration processing and are willing to work with you to preserve your pending case. Only in disreputable companies and in the most extreme cases involving bankruptcy and similar corporate dissolutions have we seen a failure to try and assist.
As you talk to your employer, understand that there is a lot -- namely, the future -- which is not in their control. Consider the following:
changes in job staffing due to economic shifts
increases in delays at the Department of Labor due to funding shortfalls
increases in delays at the INS, with priority date movement, etc.
changes in legislation
All of these factors can potentially affect your pending green card, and no matter how concerned your employer, most of these are out of their control. So what CAN you do?
Well, if you are in THIS subgroup, you don't have your adjustment pending, so you can't have employment authorization. This means that if your employer IS willing to let you reassign to another position but still believes that the position will be open to you when the final day comes for approval of the green card, you can transfer to Employer B with a new H-1B petition BUT YOUR PENDING GREEN CARD can remain with employer "A." The key: DOCUMENTING this future intent in writing and not leaving the possibility for the INS to misinterpret this temporary interruption as the termination of the employment relationship critical for the continuation of the green card process.
So when is it really a "temporary interruption" permissible under the law and when is it a "termination" ending all possibility of concluding the green card process with that employer? Well, again, "intent" is the key. As long as both parties intend that the relationship continue upon approval of the green card and you memorialize this in writing, all is okay. The minute one of you says "I quit" or "you are fired/laid off/terminated/whatever," the game is over. Only by mutual cooperation resulting in the agreed-upon temporary interruption in the employment relationship can you preserve the green card process once underway.
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Hope this will help you.....
