Q&A: Should you transfer your VISA status from L1B to H1B while employed by the same company?

We frequently receive questions from clients that we’re happy to answer and share with you. We hope that you see this as a valuable resource. If you have more questions, please email them to info@immigratingtousa.com

Should I transfer my VISA status from L1B to H1B while still employed by my current company?

Answer: It is a common occurrence for some company to transfer some of the employees they have to their foreign branches, particularly the US. If that happens, those transferred will mostly be on L1B visa status, and in the event that the company is kind enough to help them apply for an H1B consular processing petition, then there are a lot of reasons any transferred employee would want to go forth with this.

First, if they are lucky to have it go through, and it happens that the company lays off some of its employees at the end of the year, they would be considered “cap exempt” the following 6 years. Meaning, they will be free to seek employment in a different company other than the one that got them transferred in the first place.

As a matter of fact, should they at any point feel like switching employers, then it will be within their legal capacity to do so, as opposed to what could have been the case had they decided to keep their visas on L1B status.

Two, should the process fail to go through, they can still continue living in the US on L1B visas with nothing to complain as they didn’t even use their money to try.

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