Info on H1B Transfer

[guptatarun]

Dear Forum Experts,

I have a question regarding H1B and I hope that the knowledgeable people can advice me on what I can do in below situation:

1. Employer A filed my H1B under this year's cap. My petition was selected in the lottery and I got a copy of the acknowledgement notice.
2. I left employer A and joined employer B before the petition was approved.
3. I kept a track online using the details on acknowledgement notice and now see that it has been Approved. But as I have already left employer A there is no chance I get a copy of the Approval notice.
4. My current employer B is not willing to go ahead and file a cap exempt petition without the Approval notice copy as they say there is a huge chance of denial in doing so.

Now in the given situation what can I do:
1. Is it actually possible to get this H1B transferred to any other employer with just the acknowledgement notice copy?
2. If answer is Yes, then how do I search for an employer who is willing to do so?

Any pointers/help in this regard will be of immense help for me.

I am currently in India and have never traveled to US before. Employer A is a Tier 1 IT company of India and employer B is a tier 2 IT company and both are very much process driven so wont be making any exceptions or process deviations.

Thanks
Tarun

[raghvi]

Dear Forum Experts,

I have a question regarding H1B and I hope that the knowledgeable people can advice me on what I can do in below situation:

1. Employer A filed my H1B under this year's cap. My petition was selected in the lottery and I got a copy of the acknowledgement notice.
2. I left employer A and joined employer B before the petition was approved.
3. I kept a track online using the details on acknowledgement notice and now see that it has been Approved. But as I have already left employer A there is no chance I get a copy of the Approval notice.
4. My current employer B is not willing to go ahead and file a cap exempt petition without the Approval notice copy as they say there is a huge chance of denial in doing so.

Now in the given situation what can I do:
1. Is it actually possible to get this H1B transferred to any other employer with just the acknowledgement notice copy?
2. If answer is Yes, then how do I search for an employer who is willing to do so?

Any pointers/help in this regard will be of immense help for me.

I am currently in India and have never traveled to US before. Employer A is a Tier 1 IT company of India and employer B is a tier 2 IT company and both are very much process driven so wont be making any exceptions or process deviations.

Thanks
Tarun

You should have left A only after securing a copy of the Approval notice.

Technically it is possible to apply with just the receipt number but if the employer is not willing to do so you hardly have a choice. There are organizations which would take the risk by using only the receipt number but they would not advertise so publicly. You just have to search and determine when you reach at that stage. Be careful to not get caught in the net of shady consultancies, they will charge you without any end certainty of a result.

You can potentially use the FOIA (Similar to RTI for India) for getting the approval notice copy but its potentially time consuming.

This is my opinion not legal advice.

[guptatarun]

You should have left A only after securing a copy of the Approval notice.

Technically it is possible to apply with just the receipt number but if the employer is not willing to do so you hardly have a choice. There are organizations which would take the risk by using only the receipt number but they would not advertise so publicly. You just have to search and determine when you reach at that stage. Be careful to not get caught in the net of shady consultancies, they will charge you without any end certainty of a result.

You can potentially use the FOIA (Similar to RTI for India) for getting the approval notice copy but its potentially time consuming.

This is my opinion not legal advice.

Thanks Raghvi for your reply but somehow staying with employer A till Approval notice was received was not possible. So it looks like for now my only option is to continuing the search for an employer who is willing to file a H1B just on basis of acknowledgement notice.

[raghvi]

Thanks Raghvi for your reply but somehow staying with employer A till Approval notice was received was not possible. So it looks like for now my only option is to continuing the search for an employer who is willing to file a H1B just on basis of acknowledgement notice.

Yes.

This is my opinion not legal advice.