In recent months, I have been seeing a large number of people being laid off from work. Not surprising given the current economic conditions. However, if you are in the United States on a work visa, particularly on an H1-b visa, what should you do when you are laid off?
If you are on an H1b, and you are terminated from your job, you are immediately out of status. That means you have no legal status in the US. Many people have the misconception that they have legal status for 10 days, or they can leave the country in 10 days. I am afraid to inform you that if you are on an H1b visa, and you are terminated or laid off from your job, your legal immigration status is also terminated immediately.
So, what are options? Well, option number one is to leave the US immediately. However, for many of my clients, that is a very difficult option. Many of my clients have been living in the US for several years, have accumulated assets, have children who attend school, and have other life matters that need resolving before packing up to leave the country.
Therefore, option number two is to change status. The question – change your status to which visa? If you have a spouse on a valid non-immigrant visa, such as an H1-b, L visa, F visa, etc., then you can change to a dependent visa. By the sheer luck of having a spouse on a valid visa, you can have an H4, or F2 visa, for example. Granted, you may not be able to work on the dependent visa, but at least you can continue your life in the US and hopefully find another job soon enough.
However, what if you are not lucky enough to have a spouse on a work visa that you can utilize? In that case, you must change your visa to a B1/B2 visa. By changing to a visitor’s visa, you are essentially buying some time to either wrap up your affairs in the US, or to look for another job. Current processing times (as of May 19, 2009) are showing that the government is taking approximately three months to process COS petitions. You therefore have three months at least, or more if your COS is approved for a longer period, to search for a job and COS again to ‘port’ your H1b. I suggest to all my clients to ensure they apply for H1b using ‘premium processing’ meaning paying an extra $1000 to receive an adjudication within 15 days.
It is understandably an anxiety filled time for people such as my clients in these situations. My advice is to not waste time applying for COS. It is very important to keep your immigration status legal so as not to adversely affect your future immigration status.
If you are out of status for 180 days or more, you will face a three year bar from returning to the US. If you are out of status for a year or more, then you will face a ten year bar from returning. Therefore, it is very important to be careful about maintaining legal immigration status.
If you have any questions or need assistance, please feel free to contact me.