Sabbatical and H1B

[salinas]

I am on 5th year of H1B and getting ready to leave the country for a 3 to 12 months employer-approved sabbatical. I am going to be in Canada where I will get my visa revalidated upon arrival. My questions are as follows:

- Can I still enter the US even if I wait 1 to 9 months after I get my stamp?
- If I end up staying more than 1 year, can I get my H1B time reinitialized (meaning can I start the 6 years duration again)? Or do I have to cancel my current H1B prior to leaving the country in order to get a new 6 years for H1B?

 

[jaxen]

- In most cases yes. In one of the posts the POE inspector asked for evidence of availability of employment when the person entered US after 6 months visa stamping date. Not likely to happen when you enter through Canada, but you never know. They can always look it up and find that you went 6 months ago- might raise some suspicion...

-Tricky. You need proof that you never, ever came into US using the H visa during that 1 year period and did not draw any salary. So exit/entry stamps, rental receipts, tax returns and many more things might be required. You dont have to cancel the visa though.