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Thanks a lot for doing this Peter! As a J-2 visa holder, who has been issued an EAD, I will need at some point get a company to sponsor me via H1B. Questions:
by throwaway_1776 8y ago
Thanks a lot for doing this Peter!
As a J-2 visa holder, who has been issued an EAD, I will need at some point get a company to sponsor me via H1B. Questions:
a) If I get the H1B visa, my J-2 visa status is abolished?
b) If the company then fires me, am I able to switch to J-2 visa again? Will I need to re-apply for the EAD?
c) Can H1B and EAD somehow co-exist?
In my understanding, it will be best to keep the J-2 visa for as long as possible, in order to have the flexibility of not being tied to one company. On the other hand, it might take couple of tries to get the H1b, so this tells me to apply relatively early on? Is that the only trade-off?
- woodson 8y agoI am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice. Is there any two-year home residency requirement on the J-1 holder's visa (check DS-2019)? That may affect your ability to switch to H-1B (or any other visa).
- throwaway_1776 8y agoThere is, but it does not apply to me.
- woodson 8y agoWhy is that?
- throwaway_1776 8y agoBy default J-2 visa holders have to leave the country? Short answer - my spouse and I do not fulfill the main conditions they specify for having to leave the country after the visa expires.
- woodson 8y agoOk, my understanding was that (again, I’m not lawyer, this is not legal advice!), if there is a two-year home residency requirement on the J-1 holder’s visa, then both J-1 and J-2 holders cannot switch to another visa before you have either (a) resided for two years in the country of residence, or (b) were granted a Section 212(e) waiver approved by USCIS. But perhaps that’s different for some J-1 categories.
- throwaway_1776 8y agoThat might very well be true, but in our case, the two-year home residency does not apply to me nor to my spouse.