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Comment by andrewmutz | Hacker News Reader

Is it really that tied to an employer?

Everything I've read indicates that the visa is portable for the visa holder. The employee can change companies without too much trouble.

Am I mis-informed?

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> The employee can change companies without too much trouble. Am I mis-informed?

This rule changed so recently that it hasn't trickled into the job market yet.

https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-publishes-fin...

Effective from Jan 17th, 2017.

Previously, if your employer found out that you interviewed elsewhere (due to to a reference call or other means), they could fire you and there was only 10 days where you could wait for the new employer/offer to materialize.

https://www.uscis.gov/tools/ombudsman-liaison/practical-immi...

So, yes - you're somewhat married to your company.

I switched jobs while I was on H1B in 2004. I don't think legally a company can fire you just because you are looking for a job, that too without giving a notice. They have to put you on some sort of a Performance Improvement Plan or something like that right ?

> I don't think legally a company can fire you

In places which have "at will employment" regulations, they can. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment:

   At-will employment is a term used in U.S. labor law for contractual relationships 
   in which an employee can be dismissed by an employer for any reason (that is, 
   without having to establish "just cause" for termination), and without warning.

> I don't think legally a company can fire you just because you are looking for a job, that too without giving a notice

I wish - not where I work (California).

There are protections by law [1], but none that protects an H1B employee from being fired for trying to quit.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment#Statutory_e...

Notice period is typically 2 weeks and company can pay for that period in lieu of notice period. So none of those things are comforting for an employee on visa.

In many states they don't even need a reason to let you go.

Previously you didn't have 10 days to find a job when you were fired. Based on USCIS rules previously, you had to be employed the day you file your H1 transfer. So in case you are fired, and if uscis asked for your latest pay stubs covering your employment of date of filing, you would need to leave the country, file it again and come back in.

When I filed an H1 for my startup, they issued a Request for Evidence just because the documentation mentioned our investor pitch "founder previously employed by LinkedIn". They thought I had already quit my job. Luckily I was still employed and was able to send the pay stubs.

You can change companies, but your ~7 year wait for US permanent residence will reset. So you basically can't change companies if you intend to immigrate.

In fact even just changing locations within the same company will reset the green card process.

getting promoted would also reset the process. (unless they've fixed that)

What 7 year wait? I got mine in 10 months.

You must not be from China or India then.

Or Mexico or the Philippines or Vietnam or Pakistan or a host of other countries on 6+ year immigrant queues.

Only India have China have significant employment based immigrant queues. Some of the other countries you mentioned are severely backlogged in the family based categories.

Hmmm... the only countries that have a major backlog in employment-based green cards are China and India.

Philippines has a backlog for family-based green cards.

Unless they have an advanced degree (I believe a PhD, or at the very least a Masters), foreign workers, even highly paid silicon valley software engineers fall under the EB-3 category, which has a further backlog than that. I have friends with Filipino passports working at Google/MS/etc for 4+ years and still waiting on movement on their green card applications.

I stand corrected! Wow! I used to check the State Department's visa bulletin all the time when I was waiting for my green card. Back then China and India were the only countries with backlogs.

Looking at the current bulletin.[1] It now looks like China, India, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines all have some backlog for EB-3.

Yikes! However, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras only have a ~4 month backlog.

[1]https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bul...

Just to clarify the item of confusion.

EB2 green card visa wait times: only China and India (for now)

EB3 green card wait times: Mexico, Phillipines and other countries

I think most folks may not realized that there are a variety of green card paths, even within the employment category, and the requirements for EB1, EB2 and EB3 are completely different.

10 months from H1B not L1A?

However an H1 is a non-immigrant visa. So if the intent is to immigrate, that's the wrong visa and thus permanent residency eligibility ought to be irrelevant. H1s being used as back door immigrant visas is a misuse of the program and violates the intent.

H1 is a dual-intent visa. Meaning that it's deliberately set up so that you can file for a green card on it, and not get kicked out of the country immediately (as is the case for e.g. tourist visas).

So, no, it doesn't violate its intent. And, pragmatically speaking, it's the only viable track to green card and, ultimately, citizenship for the majority of skilled immigrants into the USA.

Yes, it is still a silly setup, and most other countries have an explicit skilled immigration track that covers the same niche. Most of US immigration law and regulations is so ad-hoc and randomly slapped together (due to widely differing polices and a lot of knee jerking), that it is like that in general, though.

Pretty sure you retain your priority date across job changes if you already have an approved I-140 from your old employer.

Hm indeed, that seems to be the case now. They must have updated the rules since the last time I looked.

If you hold one H1-B, you can get a new H-1B without needing to win the lottery again. That's usually referred to as a "transfer", even though you are technically getting an H-1B.

Correct, it's a new H1B petition. For 6 years after getting your H1B you are cap exempt. However the "transfer" gives you only the reminder of 6y.

It's not, and companies do H1 transfers, which come with their own fees. There are some other hooks - employee might be liable for filing fees if they quit too soon, and if the company has started a green card petition, there are multiple small steps involved as far as paperwork and deadlines, which makes a potential change of employers risky.

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