Travel India after H1 Approval from L1

USA H1B Visa
1 
[b]Please help!!!!!!!!![/b]



I am on L1B VISA with company A and this is valid till March 30, 2013. 
Company B has filed H1 in April 2012 with change of status and this has been approved on Dec 15 2012.



Now I have to go to India in Last week of Jan-2013 and Return USA on feb 10 2013 with urgent family commitment.
Questions :- 
1) What will happen to my L1B  as now my H1B petition is approved? Does my L1B VISA get voided? 
 



2) Do I have to go for stamping, I don’t want to do so because as there is more chances of rejections now a days. Can I go to India on my L1B VISA and return back on same without stamping even my H1B petition is approved? 




3) If I go for stamping and my H1B (COS) is not approved then will I be able to return to USA on my L1B Visa?
2

  1. What is your H1b start date ? If it is 15th December then you can no longer work on L1b visa and should immidietly join company B.

  2. Yes you need to go for stamping as L1b can no longer be used once you change the employer.

  3. Same as 1) and 2) your L1b will no longer be valid from the date mentioned in the approval notice as the start date. you can not use it to come back to US.

As far as I understood your question, if you have not yet changed your employers AND if the H1 start date is a future date, then I would suggest you go to India right now on L1B and come back again on L1B. This would again be a COS for you as your current status is H and not L. you could ask company B to ammend your H1B status with a different start date once you are back and if you still plan on joining them.

If you have good faith in company B and you have already joined it and you can not avoid going to India, then go ahead and lets hope there would not be any issues in the stamping. The best option right now is to discuss this with company B’s attorney and get a legal advice on the same. Best of luck.

3

  1. Agree w/ Ankit

  2. You can still return on your previous L-1 visa stamp. H-1 approval doesn’t invalidate L-1 visa, it invalidates L-1 visa status. Your L-1 visa stamp is still valid and can be used to return to US (provided L-1 employer is still willing to hire you, and the visa stamp has not expired)

  3. Refer (2)