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> Last I heard, your employer can apply for a greencard after 5 years on a visa. You can then become independent after a grace period with the sponsoring employ
by VTimofeenko 5y ago
> Last I heard, your employer can apply for a greencard after 5 years on a visa. You can then become independent after a grace period with the sponsoring employer. 6 months is typical.
Having gone through L1 process myself I don't believe the 5 years until application is an official requirement. L1 visa itself maxes out at 5 years, so filing for the greencard with the work permit(EAD) at 5 year mark will leave the employee unable to work until the work permit is granted. I have seen cases when companies would file for a greencard almost immediately after transferring the employee on L1 visa.
- whoisjuan 5y agoThis is correct. You can apply for a green card whenever. I did mine a few months after getting my H1B.
- VTimofeenko 5y agoMinor correction: in case of the work visas it's not the employee that files for green card, but the company. It's not a cheap process(and AFAIK, the employee cannot pay even a portion of the main process by themselves), so some companies hesitate when filing, leading to the long periods of uncertainty and stress.
- whoisjuan 5y agoRight. My H1B employer refused to file for a green card right away and wanted to wait a year. I simply left for another employer who filed it right away.
- VTimofeenko 5y agoDid you go through H porting process? How long did it take?
- whoisjuan 5y agoYes. It took less than a month paying premium. But this was a while ago.
- VTimofeenko 5y agoYeah, these days even with premium processing the processing times are insane.
- temp_praneshp 5y agoWhat do you mean by "these days"? My wife and I have done h1 porting 3 times in total during the pandemic (once during President Trump, others during President Biden), and the process was insanely fast (== 1.5 month total from starting email with lawyer to I797 in hand, including a week at DOL and about a week at USCIS for the I797). We used Premium Processing (never not used it, except during the time it was suspended a few years ago). I was curious if it has ballooned back up since May 2021.
- VTimofeenko 5y agoHaven't done H porting myself (went L1 -> GC), but the time to process for i539+i765 for L2 was 14 months in 2020-2021, which put my spouse on forced unpaid leave for ~8 months. Green card processing times estimates were also insane, so I surmised porting would be affected as well. Glad that it wasn't.
- ReaLNero 5y agoHow long did your GC take from start to finish?
- whoisjuan 5y agoA year and a half. More or less. But it was relatively fast.