Urgent: I have no job, will get RFE in a few weeks

M

MumboJumbo

Registered Users (C)
Hi my I-485 will be current in November but I have not had a H-1B sponsored job for 3 years now. I was laid off and they withdrew H-1B. I started working as a freelance with EAD. I was doing financially ok last year but this year I have been making less than the required minimum wage, $18,000 a year. My attorney says they will send me a Request for Evidence when my application becomes current in November because my H-1B was withdrawn 3 years ago. I am looking for a job now but I'm not sure how much longer I can stay once I get a RFE. Anyone has any idea what will happen in this case?


EB-3
PD: November 08, 2006

Thank you in advance
 
It's not guaranteed that they will send an RFE. They might even send the green card directly, or schedule you for an interview, or leave your case pending for several months before taking action.

If they send an RFE, you'll probably have about 30 days to find a job and respond.

Your wage is not as important as finding a job where the job duties are "same or similar" to the job on the I-140.
 
Jackolantern said:
It's not guaranteed that they will send an RFE. They might even send the green card directly, or schedule you for an interview, or leave your case pending for several months before taking action.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? I have been working with only EAD, not sponsored for H-1B for three years. From what I understand, they review the case and if the applicant isn't working with H-1B they send a RFE to see what the applicant has been doing.
 
My H1B expired and I was working with EAD for 2 years, then a couple months after my priority date became current again, they directly sent me the green card without RFE.

They might send RFE, they might not. It is not standard procedure to send RFE for people whose H1Bs have expired. Sometimes they do that, sometimes they don't. USCIS is not consistent with that.

Anything can happen -- interview request, RFE, or the green card itself.
 
Jackolantern said:
My H1B expired and I was working with EAD for 2 years, then a couple months after my priority date became current again, they directly sent me the green card without RFE.

They might send RFE, they might not. It is not standard procedure to send RFE for people whose H1Bs have expired. Sometimes they do that, sometimes they don't. USCIS is not consistent with that.

Anything can happen -- interview request, RFE, or the green card itself.
Click to expand...

When your PD became current, what was the status you saw on the USCIS homepage? And for two months you didn't hear from them? My D-Day is in two days...
 
After fingerprinting in 2005, the status didn't change until early 2007, when the case was transferred to the Texas Service Center.

A few months after that when my PD became current, I got a notice in the mail to give fingerprints again. After giving FP, the next status change was a couple months later saying the card has been issued. No RFE. A week after that status change, the physical card arrived in the mail.

If you last gave fingerprints more than 15 months ago, you can expect to be fingerprinted again. But after that, it's unknown whether you'll get an interview notice, RFE, or the green card itself (or all three!).
 
Thank you. Last week my green card was approved. I was so surprised but happy.

Now, I hear there is a "6 months rule" in which you have to stick with the same employer or type of job for 6 months after getting a green card. My question is how do they check it? Will it be a problem at some point in the future if I change my career to something entirely different type of job? If so, how and when do they verify it? When I apply for a citizenship? Or renewing my GC in 10 years?
 
They don't speculatively investigate people to find out if and when GC holders left their employers. And renewal of the GC does not involve that level of detailed scrutiny. If you leave the employer, they're not going to know unless you or your spouse apply for citizenship, or the employer informs them of your departure.

There is no official 6 month rule; it is a guideline based on the underlying principle of the employment-based green card, which is that the green card was issued to you in order to work permanently for the employer. Of course, permanently does not literally mean for the rest of your life or until retirement. Even for marriage-based cases, where marriage is actually intended to be for life, the beneficiary is generally safe if the marriage lasted just 2 years after the green card. In the employment context, it appears that most lawyers agree that 6 months is good enough, and the main disagreement is over whether a shorter period like 2 or 3 months is also good enough.

Unfortunately, we won't know how long is too long until a court case or regulation that clarifies it. But so far there are no known cases of anybody being denied citizenship for leaving the employer too soon, although there were a couple cases on the forum of people who left in less than a month and were hassled in the interview, but they ultimately got their citizenship.

Have you actually received the green card yet? Or you only received the card production email?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top