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Please make sure your previous employer won\'t to do anything harmful to your petition, things like withdraw/cancel your I-140, inform INS your H1B visa is invalid, etc. Following is the answer:
1. Is my immigrant petition valid if I move to another job or location within the same company or if I change employers?
Section 106(j) of the new law allows a foreign national whose adjustment of status application has been pending for 180 days or more to “change jobs or employers if the new job is in the same or a similar occupational classification as the job for which the petition was filed.”
a. This is perhaps the most tricky and unclear provision of the new law. Until policy guidelines are issued, it is impossible to know how INS will interpret this provision. In particular, what constitutes “the same or a similar occupational classification” may be interpreted in many ways. We therefore encourage employers and foreign nationals to take a conservative approach and avoid changing jobs or employers until such time as implementing regulations are issued.
b. Furthermore, in the case of foreign nationals who wish to change jobs, it is highly likely that your former employer will withdraw the underlying I-140 petition and reuse the labor certification for another employee. If this is the case, and until regulations are issued, it is possible that the INS will disallow the continuance of an adjustment of status case if a change of jobs or employers is made, despite the wording of the new law. Again, utmost caution is required.