Things you need to know.

Oops!

There are more things you think you know but you have no idea about H1-B.

Knowing what the right legal info and restrictions are is important so that you won’t end up wasting thousand of dollars to apply for H1-B. Talk to your counselor/attorney...etc throughly about it before you make your decision whether H1-B is really for you or not. It’s OK  to ask many many questions to an attorney even before you decide to apply. 

I wish I knew!
Let’s say you have an H1-B right now, but you want to find another job. You need to renew every 3 years; however, H1-B doesn’t last more than 6 years, so you need to switch to Green Card or some kind of legal work Visa in order to stay in the U.S. within the 6 years. Usually, it takes about 3 to 5 years to obtain a Green Card from the time you apply. Think about that....... that means, you would want to apply for G.-Card at least the 2nd or 3rd year on your H1-B period. During this time, you cannot change your career. You have to stay with the same employer once you have applied. 

Actually you don’t have to stay if you want to go trough such a trouble. Here is the thing: for you to change a job, you need to apply for an H1-B sponsored by the new company (AGAIN!), but once you have applied to G-Card with the previous company, you’ll have to go back with the previous one by the time your G.-Crard is approved. As soon as a couple months(reasonable time period) after you’d have received your G.-Card, you’ll be free to work in any field, anywhere.

Another thing I wish I knew was about the suck-y policy being that comes along with H1-B. You cannot change your career easily! You are kind of stuck forever, well at least 6 years unless you don’t quit and move back to your country. My situation was that  I found a great job, 100 fortune, best-company-to-work-for, which offered approximately $52ooo/year. Not bad! That’s almost 20K more than what I make! Their rule was; to be temp for at least 6 months, then decide whether they want me as full time or not. During this 6 month, they wanted me to be on a contract with an agency (My American friend was in a very same boat with the same company, and now she’s full time). I went for it. I met the people. I did a background check and drug test. I got the job.In my case, I had to ask this agency to sponsor me for H1. But remember, to apply for H1, it is required to have an official letter to prove that a sponsoring company is willing to keep the employee for 3 years period... The contract with the agency has to be 6 month period!!!!! Come On! I would have tried harder and further if I hadn’t made my decision moving to Brazil in the end of 2010 then, but I did, so Oh Well :) 

Where did I learn all these knowledge and info? Oh, I found a great attorney who is locating her office in Costa Mesa, CA. — Yoko Higuchi - Immigration Law — Thanks so much to her work, helpfulness and patient. I always call her for anything immigration related. She has the answers.