Can I Apply for H1 B Again if My Opt Expires

The increasingly-pop H-1B visa provides many advantages to those who hold it. Considering the long procedure involved with finding an employer, being selected in the lottery, so being approved, the H-1B visa is very valuable. For that reason, it is understandable that many people would want to wait into an H-1B visa extension or renewal as they notice new employment, work toward their greenish cards, or but wish to proceed working and living in the Us.

Under normal circumstances, a foreign national is initially granted a period of stay of 3 years in H-1B status. When you nigh the end of that period, you will exist able to utilize for an H-1B visa extension upward to a total of 6 years. An employer, however, can only request a full of 3 years on any given H petition.

Information technology is important to annotation that for certain H-1B1 applicants from Chile and Singapore, the visa is only valid for a one-year catamenia of admission, which can be renewed each twelvemonth.

Requirements for H-1B Visa Extension Across 6 years:

Certain H-1B holders who have had a Labor Certification Application (or an employment-based preference immigration petition if the foreign national has been able to featherbed the labor certification stage) pending for more than 365 days may be able to extend their H-1B visa beyond the 6-twelvemonth limit, in 1-twelvemonth increments. This can go on until the time a final conclusion is reached on the pending employment-based permanent residence case.

Unfortunately, this 7th-year extension is limited to persons who are applying for their green cards through the employment-based category; information technology is not available to persons with pending family unit-based petitions.

Another provision of the current statute permits an H-1B extension beyond the sixth year if the H-1B visa holder has filed an employment-based preference petition but is unable to proceed with aligning of status to permanent resident status because of a backlog in priority dates.

If yous accept an employment-based immigrant petition (I-140) filed with the USCIS and have received approval but are waiting for your priority date to be current, your H-four spouse and/or dependents are eligible to apply for employment authorization and get an EAD (Employment Authorization Document). This will allow them to work for any U.Southward. employer without restriction (bated from jobs that require security clearance).

As long as y'all have an approved I-140, your H-4 holders will exist able to extend their piece of work authorization. Withal, if you were to change jobs or your employer were to withdraw your I-140, the EADs would all the same be valid until their expiration date, simply they would exist unable to be renewed unless you had some other I-140 approved by that time.

Keep in heed that the current administration is seeking to eliminate this H-4 EAD dominion , which would force H-4 holders to seek alternative means of employment.

Terminal Rule

On January 17, 2017, the Federal Annals implemented a final rule that heavily affected many working visas, including the H-1B. In particular, it made an touch on visa holders who are attempting to apply for an H-1B extension while working toward lawful permanent resident status (green card).

When applying for an employment-based green carte du jour, your sponsoring employer must file an I-140 petition. Before the concluding rule, the regulations mandated that the I-140 needed to exist submitted 365 days before the stop of the 6-year maximum stay. Instead, the Federal Register has amended this to say that the petition must exist filed at to the lowest degree 365 days earlier the showtime of your exemption.

H1B Renewal Process:

Extension requests are fairly similar to the original H-1B petition package (i.e. required filing fees, new H forms, new LCA, new employer alphabetic character, photocopy of the H-1B approval find from the original petition, as well as the other supporting documents). However, but 1 re-create of each document is required in an extension petition package. The extension asking can be submitted up to 6 months earlier the date upon which the H-1B status is due to elapse (despite the fact that the I-129 instructions betoken a 4-month time frame for this).

Your employer will have to file a Course I-129 on your behalf and submit it with all of the necessary documents. A new Labor Condition Application (LCA) for an extension beyond the initial three-year period must too be submitted by your employer along with the I-129. Keep in mind that the former rule where an employer would be allowed to submit an H-1B extension request with a awaiting LCA does not use anymore.  Now, your employer must wait and receive the approved LCA from the Department of Labor before filing an I-129 on behalf of an employee.

Past police force, the timely filing of an extension asking automatically "locks in" the foreign national'southward legal status and ability to piece of work for the sponsoring employer for a menstruum of 240 days across the date upon which the H-1B status expires.

H-1B Visa Extension Options

There are several means that you can receive an H-1B extension after 3 years:

• 1-Year H-1B extension

The foreign professional may use for an H-1B extension past 6 years in i-twelvemonth intervals. This can occur if the PERM petition or the I-140 was filed 365 days earlier the 6-year expiration engagement.

• three-Year H-1B extension

The strange professional is able to apply for an H-1B visa extension condition for up to three years if the applicant has an approved I-140 petition for the EB-1, EB-two or EB-3 employment-based green card classifications and the immigrant visa number is unavailable.

This is usually granted so that beneficiaries do non take to return habitation while they look for their priority dates to go current. Because some people must wait over a decade for an EB-3 immigrant visa number to become available, this H-1B extension can be very helpful.

• "Recapture" Time

Many H-1B holders decide to travel internationally for extended periods of time. " Recapturing" that time spent abroad is one way to be granted an H-1B visa extension. The foreign professional may asking an H-1B extension if he/she traveled exterior the Usa during the validity of the visa. The applicant is obligated to submit U.Due south. entry and return dates, I-94 copies, and related stamps.

Hither is an example: If Sue, an H-1B worker, visits her home state of Frg for a total of two months during her stay in the U.Due south., she may be eligible for an H-1B extension of ii months past the normal half-dozen-year limit provided that she tin can requite evidence of her difference.

Premium Processing

Fortunately, yous are able to use the optional H-1B premium processing service to expedite your new petition'south processing fourth dimension to 15 calendar days. Once you have been counted confronting the cap, yous are no longer jump by the lottery dates (i.e. April one and October 1). This means that using premium processing for an H-1B extension may be much more beneficial to your instance than it would be if you lot were filing in the cap, where the mandatory six-month waiting period to start piece of work usually renders premium processing obsolete.

To accept advantage of this service, you will demand to file an I-907 and $1,440 fee along with your I-129 petition. If the USCIS fails to process your petition in the promised time, you volition receive a refund of your premium processing fee, and your petition will be candy normally.

Keep in heed that the USCIS reserves the right to suspend premium processing for whatsoever fiscal year. In fact, they have done and then for the 2018 and 2019 financial year in order to permit those without premium processing to take their petitions processed. Cheque with the USCIS news in lodge to encounter if this option is available in the year that you are filing.

H-1B Extension Documents Checklist

In lodge to employ for an H-1B visa extension or renewal, a foreign professional must provide the following extension documents:

For Employees:

• Re-create of passport with the original H1B visa (if any)
• The I-797 approval notice issued by the USCIS
• I-94 Arrival/Deviation form with a departure date that has not yet expired.
• Your resume or curriculum vitae (CV)
• Show of employment demonstrated by i of the following:
  • iii previous paychecks
  • a go out of absence letter or;
  • a alphabetic character from the employer.
• University available's or avant-garde degree
• University transcript
• Academic evaluation
• Letters of recommendation from prior employers

For Employers:

• Copy of the job offer letter of the alphabet showing the salary offered, chore championship, and duties as signed by both the employer and the H-1B employee
• Chore clarification
• Company brochure or whatsoever marketing materials
• Re-create of the company's most recent Financial Statement, Business Program, or Almanac Report, if bachelor
• Re-create of the Articles of Incorporation, if available

H-1B Visa Extension Process for Spouses

Spouses of H-1B holders are eligible to extend their H-4 upon the expiration of the six-year limit. This extension is usually granted every bit long every bit the H4 holder has not committed any crimes or violated the regulations of their visa. The extension should be filed with

However, simply because the master H-1B holder has received an extension, information technology does non automatically grant all fastened H4 holders extensions also. It is important to recall that H-4 recipients must file the I-539 concurrently with the original H-1B extension application forth with proof of the relationship with the primary H1B holder.

H-1B Extension Fees and Cost

In lodge to get your H-1B visa extension, your employer will be subject field to the same fees that were involved with the original visa. These include:

• The filing fee for another I-129 petition: $460
• The amended Public Law 114-113 fee (if applicable): $4,000
• The ACWIA fee: $750 or $1,500 depending on whether your employer has more or less than 25 employees.
• The Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee: $500
• Whatever optional fees such every bit
  • Premium processing: $one,440 (note that this has changed since concluding year)
  • Attorney fees: Yous can meet the legal fees charged by VisaNation Law Grouping here.

It is important to recall that your employer is responsible for near all required fees . Notwithstanding, the premium processing fee can be paid either past you lot or your employer. In this instance, your employer must prove that y'all chose to pay the premium processing fee for your own benefit and not for the employer'southward benefit. Speak with an immigration attorney to get a better understanding of the fees involved with getting an H-1B visa extension.

When to File an H-1B Extension

Just like every other U.S. visa, yous must apply for an extension of your H-1B visa before the expiration of your current condition. This must be washed half dozen months before the expiration date indicated on your visa.

It is never a good idea to wait until your H-1B visa is about to expire to file for an extension. If yous end upward having to file afterward your visa has expired, you volition run the risk of experiencing serious difficulties that could jeopardize your extension approval. If your visa has expired and you are considered "out of status", you will demand to submit testify of all of the following:

• That you have maintained legitimate nonimmigrant status
• That the delay was necessary or outside of your control
• That the amount of fourth dimension the filibuster took was within reason
• That you have non violated your condition under the H-1B visa
• That you are not in the process of being removed from the U.S.

As you can meet, proving this volition be very difficult and will cost you lot both time and resources that are meliorate spent elsewhere. It is therefore advisable to avoid this route by filing your renewal at the advisable fourth dimension.

Even so, if yous find yourself caught out of status before filing for an extension, connect immediately with an immigration attorney to encounter what steps y'all demand to take adjacent in order to increase the chances of H-1B extension approving.

H-4 Visa Extension

If yous are planning on bringing a spouse or dependent with yous to the U.Southward. while you are under an H-1B visa, you can have them apply for an H-4 visa. This secondary visa would be tied to your own visa status, meaning that if you lot go an H-1B extension, then will your H-4 visa spouse or dependent. On the other hand, if your status is revoked or otherwise terminated, so is theirs.

Additionally, if the H-4 visa holder would like to work in the U.S., they will need to obtain Employment Potency Documents (EAD). In the same way, the EAD volition be valid for every bit long as the H-1B visa is valid and any extensions will likewise be applied to the EAD. However, in order for your H-4 spouse or dependent to become an EAD, yous (the H-1B holder) will demand to file an I-140 and accept it canonical past the USCIS.

What If I Get an H-1B Extension Denial?

First of all, y'all will want to decide whether your H-1B extension was denied or if it was rejected . Even though they seem like synonyms, in immigration law terminology, there is a crucial difference betwixt these ii terms.

The USCIS processes H-1B extension petitions (and all visa petitions) in two stages. During the first stage, an evaluating officer volition make an initial inspection of your case to ensure that your petition is completely filled out and authentic, that your fees are correct and filed to the right places, and that you lot take the documents and supporting show required for an H-1B extension. If your petition package is missing whatever of these elements, information technology will likely be rejected. If this happens, you lot will not receive a refund, but the best grade of activeness is often to fix the error or omission and refile your petition with new fees.

For the second phase, an evaluating officer will take a close await at your petition and supporting documents to determine whether or non you and your employer are qualified for an H-1B extension. If not, then the officer is likely to deny your petition. Fixing this is not as elementary equally refiling, equally your example will even so not be considered qualified to merit the extension.

Extension Denial Reasons

If you are concerned that your H-1B visa extension will be denied, here are some common reasons why the USCIS evaluating officeholder might make such a determination for your example.

• Specialty Position – If y'all have changed jobs with your sponsoring employer since obtaining your H-1B, there is a possibility that the USCIS may not deem information technology a specialty position. To avoid this, stay within the aforementioned position or line of work that y'all used to get your H-1B or consult with an immigration attorney to see if a new position will outcome in an extension denial down the road.
• Employer-Employee Relationship – The USCIS requires that the employer must be in complete control of the H-1B holder'south employment. The employer must have the power to rent and burn the employee also as control their bacon, work location, and day-to-day activities. This rule mostly affects those that are hired through staffing agencies and those that effort to be sponsored by their own companies.
• Visa Status – Maintaining your visa status is crucial to avoiding extension denials. Committing crimes in the U.South. is grounds for displacement and certainly grounds for an H-1B extension denial. Also, working without authorisation or dodging taxes tin can easily be reasons for the evaluating officer to deny your extension.

What To Practice Subsequently A Denial

If your extension petition is denied or rejected, you lot volition likely take a few choices bachelor to you.

1. You tin identify the issue that led to the denial of your petition and refile.
2. You can file a legal movement with the help of your attorney
3. Yous tin can petition for a different visa or green card
4. You can get out the country

Your denial or rejection detect will probably state that appealing the determination is non an option. Fortunately, the USCIS volition likely requite you lot the reason for your denial, though they will also note that no appeal can be made to a third party concerning the determination.

Legal Motions

Filing a legal motion is a delicate procedure that should not be done without the help of a qualified attorney. In that location are two types of legal motions that can be filed in the event of an H-1B extension denial.

The first is a move to reopen your example. This is put into effect usually when some new evidence comes up that, if viewed with your example, might change the negative decision. Therefore, y'all are requesting the evaluating officer to reopen the case and re-examine information technology with this new information.

The second motion is a motion to reconsider. This is something you would utilize if your chaser believes that the evaluating officeholder was incorrect in his or her conclusion to deny your H-1B extension. However, your chaser must be able to nowadays an statement that the extension should be canonical from a strictly legal perspective.

Other Options

If your H-1B extension is denied, then y'all may desire to consider applying for a different visa or green card that matches your qualification. For nonimmigrant visas, y'all have:

• TN visas for professional workers from Canada and Mexico
• J-i visas for exchange visitors such as professors and medical students
• O-i visas for those with extraordinary ability
• 50-1 visas for the specialized employees, managers, and executives of multinational companies.

If y'all are interested in making your stay more permanent, you tin can consider applying for a green card such equally the:

• EB-one green card for those with extraordinary achievements, outstanding researchers and professors, besides as the managers and executives of multinational companies.
• EB-2 for those with exceptional ability, those that accept an advanced caste, and those that authorize for a National Interest Waiver.
• EB-3 for professional workers (those with bachelor's degrees), skilled workers (those with more than than two years of relevant work experience), and other workers (those with fewer than two years of experience).

The H-1B Extension 240-Day Dominion

If you accept reached the typical vi-yr limit on your H-1B visa and accept applied for an extension past this limit through an approved I-140, you are even so subject to your visa validation menses.

Co-ordinate to the 240-Day Rule, an H-1B holder with extension pending will be allowed to keep working nether the following atmospheric condition:

• The H-1B employee still has a valid condition while filing an extension petition.
• The sponsoring employer files the extension petition on time before the expiration of the electric current condition.
• The USCIS receives the petition on time before expiration of the employee's current status.
• The H-1B continues to piece of work for the sponsoring employer who has filed the extension.

However, while the best advice is to apply for your extension well before your validation menses ends, you cannot predict or control how long information technology will take for your H-1B extension to exist processed. Fortunately, the USCIS has a provision for situations where your H-1B validation period expires while the petition is being processed.

The 240-day dominion states that you are permitted to remain in the U.Due south. working for your current employer throughout this period. If your petition is canonical during this fourth dimension, then your 240-mean solar day work authorization volition stop, and your H-1B extension will begin. Yet, if your petition is denied, this provision will immediately cease, and you lot will need to terminate working and make plans for alternatives or to leave the state.

What Happens If My Extension Petition Is Yet Pending Later 240 Days?

If yous have received neither the approving nor denial notice 240 days later submitting your extension petition, your right to continue working will stop. However, you will still accept the legal right to continue living in the United states of america, waiting for the USCIS to brand a determination on your example.

Your stay during this menstruum will be considered as authorized stay. If your extension asking is then approved, then you will have the right to go on working and living in the U.Due south. Nonetheless, if you receive a denial find, your stay from that moment will get unlawful presence, as your period of authorized stay ends the very 24-hour interval the USCIS notifies you lot of the denial. Yous will need to depart the United States immediately to avoid violating immigration constabulary and accruing unlawful presence.

Does 240-Twenty-four hour period Rule Affect H-1B Transfer, Extension, or Amendment Petitions?

No, the 240-24-hour interval rule simply applies to or affects H-1B extension. If y'all file your transfer petition before the expiration of your I-94 and it is withal awaiting later on 240 days rules, you will non be denied the correct to go along working. Dissimilar with an H-1B extension, filing for an H-1B transfer allows you to continue working while waiting for the USCIS to make a decision on your petition.

H-1B Extension With Amendments

When it comes to an H-1B extension with amendments and the 240-Twenty-four hours Rule, there is a grey area that tin exist interpreted in unlike ways. You withal accept the legal correct to continue living in the The states after 240 days of waiting for a decision. Likewise, you may still be able to continue working with amendments added to your extension petition, even later the 240 day menstruation. However, yous and your employer will need to consult an clearing attorney to ensure that you are moving forward correctly.

How to Summate H-1B 240 Days

The 240-day flow begins starting on the date stamped on your Form I-94, Departure Record, which is the day your authorized H-1B period of stay expires. For example, if your Form I-94 expires on February 1, 2020, you will need to add together 240 days starting from February 2.

Can I Travel Nether the 240-Twenty-four hours Rule?

Leaving the U.S. during this H-1B extension provision may issue in you non being able to return to the country until you receive your new H-1B visa. Therefore, it is not advisable to travel during this time. If you need to travel, and then y'all may want to consider using premium processing to expedite the adjudication of your extension petition.

How We Can Help You

Obtaining an H-1B visa is no small feat, especially when you consider the odds of being selected in the lottery. That's why you want to treat your difficult-earned visa with intendance. Making whatsoever changes such as transfers or extensions is best washed with the assist of a qualified immigration attorney to assist you lot avoid unnecessary losses in time, endeavor, and money.

VisaNation Constabulary Group's H-1B attorneys are highly skilled in profitable clients with required documentation for H-1B visa renewals and extensions. They work with y'all every step of the way to make sure that everything is done correct the first fourth dimension, and they will fight for you through any obstacle that may arise.

VisaNation Police Grouping immigration lawyers specialize in employment-based immigration matters and tin assist you determine if you meet the qualifications necessary for the specific H-1B extension. To contact usa, simply fill out our contact course to schedule your consultation.

• H-1B Visa
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• H-1B Visa Requirements
• H-1B Visa Documents
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• H-1B Visa Stamping
• H-1B Visa Transfer
• H-1B Complete Guide
• H-1B For Nurses
• H-1B For Doctors
• H-1B Processing Time
• H-1B Master'southward Cap
• H-4 Visa
• H-1B Processing Fees
• H-1B to Green Card
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• H-1B Grace Period

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Source: https://www.immi-usa.com/h1b-visa/h1b-visa-extension/

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