I have a situation where I am looking to file for H1B this year outside my current Employer.
In the meanwhile, I see there are couple of opportunities in US from my current Employer too.
And they may initiate L1B from their end, while H1B will be in process.
Since there is still some ambiguity about getting this US opportunity from my current employer due to Management approvals, I feel to go for H1B processing too just as a Backup. Thinking H1B can be useful later as well.
Here I want to know, will this parallel filing cause issues w.r.t obtaining L1B or H1B ??
Both can happen in parallel. You can then decide which visa stamp to appear for - H-1 or L-1. If you get H-1 visa stamp and later appear for L-1 visa stamp, then may cancel the H-1 visa stamp (just the stamp and not H-1 petition). Vice-versa can also happen.
Thank you for responding to my query.
I have another follow-up query.
You mentioned that I can retain H-1 petition. Does this mean that I can take L1B from my present employer, stay for 5 years and then use my H1B petition[without lottery again] for extension ??
And will it be approved for 3 years again after L1B period ??
Can the H1B sponsorer cancel my petition ??
Yes, you will be cap-exempt and can use this h-1 petition within 6 years of original approval date. However, the maximum time one can spent inside US on H-1 and L-1 is 6 years. So if you spent 5 years on L-1, then you get only 1 year on H-1. For extensions beyond that, you need to have a pending green card application at a certain stage of processing.