Same employer trying for both L1B renewal and H1B

I am working with a US multinational currently in US. My L1-B visa expired in Jun 2012. My I-94 is expiring in Jul 2013. My employer was filing H1-B visa for me this year and I was planning to leave country in Jul and re-enter in Oct 2013 with stamped H1-B. Since the H1-B went into lottery this year, my employer asked me to go to Canada for L1-B visa renewal. I have applied for Canadian visa and applied for L1-B visa renewal with interview in Canada and am supposed to take interview date as soon as my Canada visa goes through. In the meantime, I also received confirmation from my employer that my H1-B application has been selected in lottery. I do not know yet whether my H1-B visa was applied with COS or CP. I have requested this information from my employer but I am not sure if this information will be shared. My questions are -

1. If my L1-B and H1-B are both approved and my H1-B is with COS, will the COS hold as it was with my old L1-B petition?

2. If my L1-B and H1-B are both approved and my H1-B is approved with CP, can my employer hold back my H1-B documents and ask me to re-enter US on L1-B if I go outside US and return, basically force me to work on L1-B?
  1. COS is based on I-94 and hence will not be impacted. When you go to CA and if your I-94 number changes, then COS will be abandoned.

  2. Yes, they can do that. However, if you know at least the receipt number, you can then move to another employer on H-1.