Covid-19: H1B stamping done, stuck in India

[wish123]

I came to India on Feb 29th 2020 for my 1st H1B stamping. Got my passport stamped and had a return flight on 29th March 2020. But Delta cancelled my return flightband also I was scared to travel back due to Covid-19. Now the situation in US has worsened and I want to travel back sometime in May or later. I really don't want to get infected during my travel and end up in a bad state in US.

I would like to work from home in India for a month at least. My employer has no problems with it. I am yet to check with the immigration attorney on the legality of this or any problems that might arise during re-entry due to me being outside US for 2 or 3 months and working remotely from India.

Anybody in the same boat. Could you please throw some light on working remotely from India on H1b and returning back after 2 or 3 months? Is it legal to work remotely outside US? Would there be any problems for re-entry?

I do want to go back and would have returned back on 29th but Covid-19 messed everything up but am grateful that I am safe so far.

Many thanks!

[sridhar1135]

My wife is in similar situation. Did you figure out the next steps with your attorney ? Any suggestion will be very helpful.

[wish123]

Actually they got to me asking about it.
I informed them that I got my visa stamped and didn't wish to return until May end and expressed that I would connect remotely (didn't explicitly say work).
Their reply was to keep them updated, that's all. Bit surprised. Received a blanket email from Fragomen asking to get back to them if anybody's working from home outside the area mentioned in the LCA. I am planning to get on a phone and discuss about this.

Any updates from your side ? Did you happen to get any inputs from others or etc. ?
Thanks.

[Mogu]

Hey! Just to let you know what my organization is doing. They asked me to share my location with them and said that I had to be in the same metropolitan area to comply with LCA/H1B. If I was not, then they said that they would have to file an amending condition of some sort.

[wish123]

Thanks for the replies.

Mogu Are you still in US working remotely and not in the same area as mentioned on LCA ? Or is it because you are in India and working remotely and still need to file for some amendment ?

[Mogu]

wish123 I'm actually in the US pretty close to my work location. My employer was documenting the location of remote work for compliance.

They said that you have to be in commuting distance in the same metropolitan area. If that is not true and if you are even in a different city/state, then they would need to file amending paperwork.