Will the approved H1B petition valid if I change employer?

I am from and currently located in India. My existing employer had filed h1b for me in last year(2012) cap quota, the petition was approved same year in September and valid till 2015 September. Yet, my stamping is not done since there are no projects at present. Now I am planning to change employer. On resigning my current employer may ask me to return the approved.petition documents, and may even cancel the petition.

My questions:

  1. if I retain the copies of my petition and LCA docs, will that be useful for future h1 processing/application?

  2. can my current employer cancel the approved petition? If yes what are the charges for cancellation? And how much time it takes to get it cancelled?

  3. while the petition is still not cancelled, if I join the next employer and initiate a h1b transfer then what would be the process? Any benefits of having an approved petition?

  4. Any challenges if the current petition is cancelled by my employer? Will I need to undergo a fresh h1b application, petition and LCA approvals? Last time it took almost 6 months to get the petition approved. Will it be the same waiting period again!

Appreciate any valuable response and suggestions. Thanks.

  1. Always retain copies of approved petition

  2. You don’t have to worry about cancellation charges. They should not ask for charges. Not sure if they would cancel.

  3. H1B transfer process can be initiated by your new employer. They will file LCA and do a transfer. yes, benefit of approved petition is they can use it for 6 years from the year it was approved (if you have not travelled to USA). If you have already travalled, reduce that many months/years from 6 years.

  4. Waiting cannot be predicted.

Please read my post and vote: Please vote for this petition. - H1B Visa - RedBus2US Community

Thank you so much for the response.