First hand experience! I changed employer after 3 months of getting the GC. When it was time to have my citizenship interview 7 years later, the IO was definitely puzzled and kept asking me “wait, you changed employer 3 months after your green card?!”. The funny thing was that I changed employer and joined the startup started by my former manager who sponsored me the green card at the other company, so I made him write and sign a letter saying that I kept working for him and did the same tasks as before, and brought it with me at the interview. The IO definitely wanted to see that letter and actually kept the original copy in my file! I was so happy to have been overly cautious! My boss kept saying I was just paranoid. Based on my experience, I would then not recommend changing employer too quickly, it definitely got tense when the IO asked how long did I stay with the petitioning company, and his face changed visibly after I said “about three months”.
IO?
Immigration officer
Ty
You are good even without all that drama.
Actually no. What made that letter work for him was that it was his manager that went to the new company and so from USCIS point of view there was a "material change" (his manager left) that justified him leaving. The he happened to follow his manager was less important. Without the letter he could have had his greencard rescinded.
Legally, you can port your green card application to another employer as long as you leave after 6 months after filing an i485. So, why would it be an issue to leave after getting the green card?
I didn’t have the balls to debate with the guy, I just quickly told him my story and offered the letter saying I kept doing the same tasks.
You need to understand what an employment greencard is and most people surprisingly DON'T know this. You are being given a visa on the expectation that you will ACCEPT employment with your employer. Legally it's considered a different job than whatever you were doing on your temporary visa. So if you leave right away it seems you never had any intention of accepting that job and it was a fraud application. When you change your employer BEFORE getting the greencard you are telling USCIS that you plan to accept a different job and they issue the greencard so that you can accept that new job. When you change AFTER you never let USCIS verify if the new job was valid and you didn't live up to your commitment I'm the interview.
So what is a good time to stay?
Six months is the rule of thumb
It doesn't matter at all that you did the same work at a different company. The GC application is for "a future job" at your petitioning company. It's like taking the job along with the GC and then ditching the job and keeping the GC. See how it looks?
Wrong. Legally speaking, there is no basis for them to deny the application. After 6 months of filing 485, your application is portable. So, as per law, you can move as long as you’re doing the same job for a different company. If you can do this after filing your 485, you can certainly do it after you get the gc. That’s the whole point of the gc.
No loyalty needed, you get the GC application as a perk of the employment , like health care, the only reason foreign nationals are working for companies is because they are willing to offer visas and greencard to them along with a paycheck legally. It takes forever + 3000 years for Indian and Chinese nationals to get a green card after they put in enormous amount of hours in for the company during the process of getting the green card and then somehow they have future responsibility towards the company? Nobody is doing anybody any favors
Been seeing very inconsistent opinions online regarding this issue. OP, how long did you work for the first employer before getting GC? Were you on H1B before the GC or directly got GC?
Following…that’s a interesting question he went after…we’re you very long with the first employer and how long did you wait to get your gc?
Why will they care? As soon as you become a permanent resident you are free to pursue employment anywhere you see fit.
Just sharing my own experience
The whole reason you get a GC is because the company is saying "we need this guy, please give him a GC so he could work for us long term". Switching employers so soon after the GC flies in the face of that claim