H1B renewal and extension at the same time.

[kumarhatti]

Hi,

I have my h1b ending Sep 2015 (which is five months from now). I am changing my employer for the renewal.
Is there a way I can do H1b transfer and renewal with one petition right away?
I want to change my employer asap - but I dont want to petition twice for transfer and renewal within five months.
Any advice would be helpful, Thanks.

[raghvi]

Hi,

I have my h1b ending Sep 2015 (which is five months from now). I am changing my employer for the renewal.
Is there a way I can do H1b transfer and renewal with one petition right away?
I want to change my employer asap - but I dont want to petition twice for transfer and renewal within five months.
Any advice would be helpful, Thanks.

When do you want to /can join the next employer?

You cannot do an extension with current employer and the "transfer" to new employer in the same petition. You have to understand that technically there is nothing called a "transfer". What the next employer does is file a cap exempt petition.

When the next employer files the cap exempt petition("transfer"), then their petition if approved, would not be only till Sep 2015, but would rather depend upon other factors, such as time already spent in US, time requested by the next employer, documents furnished by the next employer etc.

This is my opinion not legal advice.

[kumarhatti]

Hello Raghvi,
Thank you for replying.
I am not looking to extend with the current employer. I do want to renew my H1b with new employer, but I still have five months left to renew and start working for the new employer. However, I want to start working with the new employer asap. So, I was thinking to petition for transfer.
My question is - when I petition for transfer NOW, can I also request for renewal with the same petition?