I have an H1-B/ I-140 question for you and your team. Please see below: I came to India in 2019 to get my H1 stamped along with my family and got stuck. I got a 221(g), and RFE during the process but my employer got things sorted out. Then my employer also amended my petition and I re-appeared for visa stamping interview and got stuck again due to an ‘end client’ issue. Then Covid made things worse in 2020. Questions for your team: I have an approved I-140 with my old firm (on Eb-2) with a priority date of Jan 29, 2014. I am not on a US payroll since I came to India (in 2019) & my last approved petition also expired in Jan 2022. If a new firm had to take over my H1-B case can I re-capture the unused time (time stuck in India for almost 3 years) beyond my first 6 years of H1-B with this new firm/petitioner ? If so, can I port my old I-140 (& old priority date) to the new H1 petitioner after coming to US? What is the porting time frame after coming to US? Is Premium processing available for porting old I-140 (& priority date) to the new employer? Since my priority date is current, I wanted to know if my new employer can file for AOS upon my arrival in the US. Your help and feedback on the above matter will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Q. Can I re-capture the unused time (time stuck in India for almost 3 years) beyond my first 6 years of H1-B with this new firm/petitioner?
A. Yes, you can.
Q. If yes, can I port my old I-140 (& old priority date) to the new H1 petitioner after coming to the US? What is the porting time frame after coming to the US? Is Premium processing available for porting old I-140 (& priority date) to the new employer?
A. Priority date can be ported for sure if your I-140 stayed approved till at least 17 January 2017, when there was a change in regulations in favor of the employees. Earlier, the situation was uncertain if the employer withdrew the I-140. Under the current regulations, that is not a problem for priority date transfer.
Q. Since my priority date is current, I wanted to know if my new employer can file for AOS upon my arrival in the US?
A. Adjustment of Status (AOS) is not possible. The new employer will have to start the green card all over again, carrying the old priority date.
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Note: Unless the context shows otherwise, all answers here were provided by Rajiv and were compiled and reported by our editorial team from comments, blog and community calls on immigration.com. Where transcribed from audio/video, a verbatim transcript is provided. Therefore, it may not conform to the written grammatical or syntactical form.
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