This is my situation. I had applied for H1b through a consultancy in April 2015 for consular processing from India. Since my husband was already in USA i can on H4 visa to USA in June 2015. My H1b petition was picked up in lottery but the approval didn’t come till 23rd December. This approval came after we applied for premium processing + COS from H4 to H1. But the I-797 came without an attached I-94 (which was require since mine was a COS). So my employer wrote back to USCIS and then they sent me the corrected I-797 with the I-94 attached on 1st Feb 2016. Finally I applied for my SSN and the card came to me on 8th Feb 2016.
Because of these delays my employer doesnt have a project for me to start working on immediately. In the mean while I interviewed with a huge American MNC and they offered me a full time job. I really want to take it up since its with one of the biggies.
Is it possible for me to go ahead with asking them to file for my H1B transfer immediately? I have no payslip yet, will that cause a problem.
So you stayed inside US for a month w/o getting paid. That puts you in out-of-status category.
If you say that the new employer is a big one, then they must have a team of experienced qualified attorneys who can guide you on this.
In general, the petition can still be applied but if USCIS sees that you didn’t maintain legal status, they may still approve the H-1 but w/o I-94 attached. This means, you will have to leave US, get H-1 visa stamped and then return on that visa to work for the new employer.
Thanks Saurabh. Just to clarify, my COS approval from h4 to h1 came on 11th Feb 2016. So technically it’s just 20 days since I had to start work. If I initiate h1 transfer asap won’t I be in a better position to get an approval.
Yea I know it sounds weird. Actually I had got my i797 with an attached i94 but a missing i94 number on 1st February itself. But when I went for my SSN, they pointed out that I don’t have a new i94 number but they will still try to process my SSN with my h1b receipt number. In the meanwhile we had written to uscis to send us an updated i797 with a valid i94 number and they did. So I received the SSN first on 8th feb and the physical copy of my i797 with i94 number on 11th of fen.
USCIS will definitely ask for payslip from previous employer. If you cannot provide one they will approve your transfer but mark it as out-of-status (no I-94). Your attorney can fight for it but it wont be worth for you or them.
Go out of US, get H1B stamped and you will be in status.