By paying only payroll tax can I maintain my H1B status?

USA H1B Visa
1

I was holding H1B which was valid till Oct 2010.But I left sponsering company A in May2008 and joined another company B. The new company filed petiition for H1 transfer in June2008 and started paying payroll tax from July 2008 till Sept 2008 to the US government( not salary ) on my behalf.In Oct 2008 my new emplyer B received denial letter (for my H1transfer) and stopped paying my payroll tax.I left US in Dec 2008. In this case how many months I was out of status. Will this affect my future H1 petition?( I 94 valid till oct 2010)

Please let me know.

Thanks in advance

Prabhakar

2

You were out of status for around 3 months.

and you were illegally staying in US (I94 expired ).

You may be banned for 3-5 years from entering US.

3

Although it has already been answered, I want to add that paying payroll tax doesn’t equate to maintaining status.

The person needs to get paid as per the LCA if they want to maintain status. Anything short of that, is violation of LCA and H-1.