I'm not sure what my next few years will look like, but I don't want to throw away my opportunity to be able to work in the US. If I moved back to Europe and worked at a FAANG location, would it be easy to come back and work in the US if I wanted to? That way (with an L1), I wouldn't have to hope for the H1b lottery again. Is my thinking correct? Thanks.
In l1 you can stay in USA for 5 years only. After that you have to convert to H1b or go back from USA for Atleast an year. Also note that l1 5 years count towards H1b too (you will need to validate this statement, not 100% but pretty positive) . And on l1 you can’t get infinite extensions even after getting I140.
Yes l1 years are charged in h1 quota
So your company should apply i140 within those five years to make you cap exempt.
Why don’t you wanna go back to your country ?
Yes you can. There is a massive misconception that greencard is in any way dependent on having a work visa. It's not. You can do the whole greencard process without ever stepping foot in the United States, arriving in the country for the first time with greencard in hand. It's not any legal requirement to have an h1b or any other status to apply. The greencard application is based on an offer of FUTURE employment and you don't even need to be working for the sponsor when you apply. It's just a common business practice in our industry that companies only choose to sponsor current employees, but that's not a law, nothing legally stops then from sponsoring people who are not yet their employee. In other industrues, like healthcare, it's actually common for the hospital to sponsor a greencard for somebody not employed by the hospital who stays in the other country for the whole time until the greencard is issued and then arrives to start work in the hospital with the greencard in hand. This is very rare in tech but it's a totally valid process. So you could go back to India with i140 and when priority date one day comes skip the l1/h1 completely and have your employer at that time apply directly for greencard and use GC to transfer back to UD office instead of bothering with l1.
You can be in the US on L1-A for seven years, though if you've been here on H1 that counts toward total time. There are big benefits of L1-A applying for green card - you can file in EB1C category, no Perm labor cert needed, and you'll get the GC quite quickly. Also if you're married, your spouse gets L2 and can work.
Oh wow, so if I came back on an L1, my spouses could work immediately? That is actually a major factor.
Yep! It's what mine did anyway - excellent :)
Remember you need L1A, L1b won’t cut it
What is that dependent on? The level or company?
Your job role
It’s a visa fraud. USCIS will find it and cancel your GC
What is?
Do you have I140 filed? What stage are you in?
Not yet, no. Should hear back about PERM result (labor test) in May. Was audited last time. Not sure if I wanna wait for all that.
Wait until I140, unless employer has overseas office that you can transfer to
Would fang companies such as google or facebook sponsor you for a greencard if you come on L1?
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L1 is too restrictive and you can work for that company only. Best case is come back as a manager and get the green card in an year.
But moving to a US location for that specific company is easy? Also, from there, isn't getting an H1B easier than applying for one without an L1?
No getting H1b isn’t any easier or harder with l1. You have to go through same lottery. Maybe you can find multiple companies to sponsor H1b for you once you are in USA. But that doesn’t change H1b odds.