How long (in weeks) does it take to do a H1B transfer E2E?
I have submitted my questionnaire to Fragomen today and they'll do premium processing.
PP takes 15 days
Best case scenario without RFE would be 3 to 4 weeks under premium. The initial document sharing and prep of lca filing takes a week if done under a decent pace. If you can demonstrate urgency like an expiring i94 or other case-specific circumstances, the law firm will try to shave off a few days. Then once LCA is filed, it can take a week round trip for the certified LCA to arrive. Hopefully the rest of your petition pile is already readied by then. Once submitted, you're guaranteed to hear something in 2 weeks, thus making it closer to 4 weeks to get something back. Hopefully that something is an approval but these days 60% cases get an RFE. In rare cases with big companies, if the company has already certified an unused LCA for same title and same location and same salary, they could recycle it. This could shave off a week. Typically, it's at least 4 weeks end to end. Likely even more if the ping pong between you and the law firm takes a while. Obviously, if you get an RFE, it'll add extra time. Typically at least a month or two if it's the Specialty Occupation one, which is a frequent one. It all depends on the RFE and your circumstances. Source: experience
Thanks for the detailed response. The new company has put the joining date to be tentatively November 18th. Do you think I can cut it?
Yeah that seems typical. Depends on the agility of the law firm and if you end up getting RFEs. But assuming those work out in your favor, I can't see a reason why you can't make that date. What's the law firm? Maybe ppl can comment on how their experiences have been with them lately?
I had someone take 6 months from offer to start date.
Was this with PP?