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Comment by justinjlynn | Hacker News Reader

An employer of an employee on a sponsored H1B visa is unable to keep that employee from finding new employment at another employer who is willing to file an H1B petition. There isn't any way for the current employer to find out the employee has applied elsewhere. If the employee already holds an H1B, then the new employer is not limited by the yearly H1B cap [1].

I am by no means an expert on legal or immigration matters, so you'll have to do your own research. Also, since you refer to an H1B but did not explicitly state the country, I'm assuming you're referring to the US where Skilled Immigration for Work visas are typically called H1Bs. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Cheers

[1] <http://www.immihelp.com/visas/h1b/h1-visa-transfer-faq.html> -- looking for a better source that's not commercial, happy for pointers.

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You're right and H1B transfers are easy and would only scare off an inexperienced employer. I moved jobs twice on a H1B without incident, even though one of my employers tried to make it an issue. I'd suggest the generally precarious immigration status of visa holders in the US contributes to this myth.

The problem isn't with finding new job, it's with time. There is no grace period for H1b. If you are laid off without any advance notice, you have to pack up your stuff and leave the country immediately. Not to mention, you have no time to sell off your car or any other property, unless you have friends who can do that after you leave. So unless you are proactively looking to change company, you are always under constant fear. Source: http://www.uscis.gov/tools/ombudsman-liaison/practical-immig... See Q2

My understanding is that changing jobs can be detrimental to your application for a permanent green card in some cases.[1] Sometimes that is bad enough to keep you where you are.

[1]https://www.quora.com/If-an-employer-has-applied-for-a-green...

Yes it is. Changing jobs will reset the greencard process ( which is 8 years for Indian & Chinese citizens ). So H1B jobs cannot be changed easily. Cannot ask for raise because the employee's destiny is in employer's hand. H1B's spouse ( H4 ) cannot work even though they are well qualified. ( I feel restricting spouses to work is something similar like in Saudi where women can't drive )

I am in H1B. I cannot change my employer because my greencard has been filed recently. I have to wait for 8 years to get permanent residency. Every three years I have to renew my petition. I will be 40 when I get my greencard. I am going to get married now , my spouse resigned her job in India at Oracle and is going to sit at home watching TV & cooking in US, because she is not authorized to work with H4 visa. She is a Master's degree holder in Finance and fluent in English & French. Now she has to spent all her productive years in a rented apartment.

I140 work authorization is a ray of light. USCIS is like a chameleon , changing rules all the time , putting many skilled workers under anxiety and stress all their life.

So me & fiance is planning to apply for PR in Canada as soon as we get married through the express entry system and get out of this mess soon.

I'm sorry, but she doesn't have to spend her productive years cooking and watching TV. She can perfectly write, read, blog, or stay in India at her oracle job, among a myriad of alternatives.

I'm not defending the H1B system, which sucks, but you always can find a better way.

Not everyone likes to write,read or blog ,people are different, nor can she stay in India. I don't think you understand how marriage works in Indian culture. How does it feel for you to get married and then stay away from your partner. I don't how it works in this part of the world. But it won't work for me.

I see many (most?) people block themselves into false dichotomies, in this case: "Either I can work as whatever I was trained at or I must stay at home". There are more options, always.

I was not presuming to know what will work for you, just mentioning there are lots of alternatives. Many require courage and effort, but still, they are there.

Don't forget that if the Canada plan doesn't work.

In my case , it not only needs courage and effort. The USCIS restricts me from working on anything else than the occupational field for which I got my work visa on. I am not whining or anything, this country has given me a lot of good things. In fact the pros outweighs the cons. I am just pissed off with the fact that my spouse can't work , just because she is married to an H1B worker. As an individual , its not her mistake that she married an H1B worker. She is not even allowed to have a SSN ! An alien who do not have SSN cannot open a bank account among many other restrictions.

She can't legally work, that sucks.

She can do many things that are not classified as work, though. And that's the important thing, she can still make/do/think/learn and might even go as far as unofficially trading with people for that (talk to a lawyer first - the trading part might not be such a good idea, but the first part sure is.)

Anyway, just pointing it out for the third time to try to get the point across, I find it a hard thing to do: You very frequently have more choices than those you think you have, and in the cases when you really don't it's because you've chosen a path that's led where you are, so you either get creative or get stuck.

Oh please, you cannot seriously compare Saudi Arabia to the US? H1B cannot change jobs easily? I've changed 4 jobs without any issue. And what issue could arise possibly? There is no restriction in terms of changing jobs on H1B. I don't want to make this personal but if you are so concerned about your fiance sitting at home idle wasting her productive years, why wouldn't you consider going back to India? The rules have been the same before you got hitched, you knew perfectly well that it is unlikely that she would work in the US (unless she gets an H1 on her own) And I don't understand this fascination of getting a green card; what does that give you? You can still lose your job and be paid unemployment checks which wouldn't cover your rent/mortgage. Full disclosure: The whole discussion on H1 crippling careers etc is just BS. If you have the talent and more importantly persistence you can achieve your career goals. I always remind people, the rules have been laid out by USCIS, it is what it is. You can either sit on your backsides complaining of how unjust they are or get an I140 and keep extending your H1B and continue towards your career goals. But people tend to be risk averse.

> So me & fiance is planning to apply for PR in Canada as soon as we get married

Speaking as a Canadian who's worked in the US you'll make less money out of two incomes in Canada than you will working by yourself at an H1B in the US.

L1B would be a better example :-)

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