Change company <6 months after getting Green Card?
Feb 4, 2020
7 Comments
Title. Heard people saying that switching companies less than 6 months after getting Green Card will raise questions (because essentially GC is tied to employment) during naturalization interview. Is it true? If so, how can one prepare for these questions (as in, team/responsibility changed, or maybe no promo for long time. Is it possible to document this somehow?)? Why then AC21 allows for company change (with same title/responsibility) 6 months after filing I-485? May there be questions after filing I-485 supplement J? Finally, do you know anyone denied citizenship due to this? Thanks in advance.
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1. Easiest way -- wait the six months. Big deal. You have a greencard, it's only a few months. Enjoy! What's the rush? Slack off. If they fire you that doesn't count against you.
2. Opportunistic way -- document a reason why the job turns out not to be what you expected. Supervisor changed? Project scope reduced? Not assigned to the work you expected? In our industry it's hard to get through six months without SOMETHING changing. Save the emails as your evidence that it was different than you expected it would be, and that is a justification to quit. How could you have known? Maybe 30min consult with a lawyer and verify your proof of changes is enough and if it is then SAVE THAT PAPER TRAIL. You will need it in 6-7 years when your go to your naturalization interview.
3. Official stupid way -- Do an AC21 transfer. You still can do that. Get a lawyer to draft documentation that the new position qualifies. Spend stupid $$$ of your own money just to move a few months early. Yes you can change to an equivalent job, but you'll need proof it is equivalent just in case one day a border bozo claims it wasn't. After the six months you can go flip burgers at McDonald's if you want and no one will care, yet the lawyer will probably take half that long to draft the papers proving AC21 job equivalence, so NO ONE bothers doing this. But hey, if you have $$$ to waste on pointless, stupid things, go for it!
It's useful to understand why this is a thing: Lying to get an immigration benefit is a deportable offense, and you the told immigration officer that you planned to take this job, and that information was used to get an immigration benefit. Were you lying? If you lied, then that gives the immigration bozos an excuse to take your greencard away, claiming it was fraudulently obtained. Risk this would happen to you? Small. Unlikely. But not zero, and the consequences are dramatic if it does. You could chance it if you want but I wouldn't.
P.S., Welcome to the United States of America.