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Comment by hatred | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone shed more light on what happens in the following scenario:

You get terminated/leave your current job and activate the new 60 day grace period to find a new job. Provided that a H1B transfer to a new employer can take more than 60 days now. Does one need to leave the country forcefully?

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You can continue working for the new company from the moment they apply for the H1B transfer. But there are a few companies that do not allow this.

AFAICT, there are no companies that allow this since its against the law. Do you have some links where I can read more on this or what companies allow it?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for clearing it out. Looks like it's allowed and documented here: https://www.murthy.com/2011/06/27/h1b-faqs/ (Ques. 5). Not an official USCIS link though.

This is not against the law. If your visa is current, you can start working as soon as you get the receipt notice for the new H-1B application https://www.murthy.com/2011/06/27/h1b-faqs/

It is not against the law. Plenty of silicon valley companies do it.

Though this is not against the law; I don't know any real companies that does this.

The last 4 companies I joined (all fortune) allowed this. In fact they were pressing for me to start. As OP said, all you need is the application receipt.

Receipt of H1B (tranfer to new company) application is enough. I dont know of any silicon valley company that does NOT do it.

But the only problem is, if you are already terminated, you shouldn't apply for a H-1B transfer. It would be like applying fresh, except you don't have to go through lottery. And also because this is a new visa, you are not qualified to work based on the H-1B portability rule either. So you have to wait until it is approved before you join the new company.

I recall that there had been a new ruling (Jan 17) on this though limited to people with an approved I140 petition. This ensures that your petition remains valid and you are eligible for a transfer even if your existing employer withdraws your petition. That should hopefully provide some respite for people who were terminated.

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

> But the only problem is, if you are already terminated, you shouldn't apply for a H-1B transfer

Thats not how it works unless the company that terminated your employment also revokes your H1-B visa. if your transfer is filed before the revocation then you're mostly fine, but now that theres no premium processing who knows?

> and activate the new 60 day grace period to find a new job.

Just FYI, this 60 day "grace" period is a bit of an unspoken rule, in reality though, you're expected to leave the US as soon as your job is terminated/visa is revoked, so make sure if you can that the terminating company doesn't revoke your visa within 45-60 days, or else you'll be in a lot of trouble, even if you find a company willing to transfer your visa in that time period.

> this 60 day "grace" period is a bit of an unspoken rule

It is a documented rule now since Jan 2017.

source pls?

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

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