4 ms·

The later part of the above statement is an incorrect. You can change a job while your green card is being processed provided, a) You have applied for your 485

by hpagey 13y ago

The later part of the above statement is an incorrect. You can change a job while your green card is being processed provided, a) You have applied for your 485. b) Its been 180 days since you have applied for it. This process is called invoking AC21. In my opinion and experience H1B candidates are paid on par with other candidates. I saw no salary discrimination at least with decent and reputed companies. I agree H1b is exploited by some companies but those are typically consulting or outsourcing companies.

smartician 13y ago
Unfortunately, the bottleneck usually is the period until your priority date becomes current and you can actually submit form I-485. Processing the I-485 normally only takes a few months, unless it gets stuck in the FBI background check somehow.
joshAg 13y ago
thanks for the update. i was just going on what my h1b coworkers have told me. unfortunately, i can no longer edit or delete my original post, so i hope everyone reads your reply. as for payment versus greencard/citizens versus h1b's, it depends on the company. I know some companies that do pay the same for both, but I can name at least 5 'reputable' (or at least, large, household name) companies that my coworkers told me had different, lower pay scales for the h1b workers that they actively avoided working for, even after getting a greencard. But since i've not worked for one directly (as far as i know anyway), i'm not going to name names.
joshAg 13y ago
I did some more research after leaving my last comment, and the part i was talking about was "New employment must be the 'same or similar' occupational classification," [1] which according to my coworkers means you can't switch amongst QA engineer, dev/software engineer, and manager. The dev <-> QA switch probably isn't very common, but dev/qa -> management is apparently an issue, since green-cards for Indians with a masters take roughly a decade of waiting on an h1b to get (again, this is according to my coworkers, not something i have direct experience with). [1]: http://immigrationroad.com/green-card/ac21-portability-change-jobs.php http://immigrationroad.com/green-card/ac21-portability-chang...
- smartician 13y ago
  Note that all this only applies to those whose priority dates became current due to the USCIS fiasco of July 2007, and filed I-485 at that time. Everyone who started the GC process later and is waiting for their PD to become current cannot invoke AC21. Frustrating! From the page you linked: "Hundreds of thousands of people were able to file I-485 applications under the July Visa Bulletin of 2007"
  - hpagey 13y ago
    Correct, so it was not a fiasco for people who were able to apply for Adjustment of Status i-485. This happened in 2009 too. I hope it keeps on happening every few years. At least people can get EAD which gives you ability to work anywhere in the US.
hpagey 13y ago
Adding to my previous post, For a GC application to apply for 485 your PD needs to be current. India EB2 and EB3 is heavily backlogged. China EB2 situation is better than India EB2. If a GC application's or its spouse's country of birth is not India or China (ROW category, Rest Of World) , the PD moves really fast in EB2. I think its current now.

by hpagey 13y ago

smartician 13y ago

Unfortunately, the bottleneck usually is the period until your priority date becomes current and you can actually submit form I-485. Processing the I-485 normally only takes a few months, unless it gets stuck in the FBI background check somehow.

joshAg 13y ago

thanks for the update. i was just going on what my h1b coworkers have told me. unfortunately, i can no longer edit or delete my original post, so i hope everyone reads your reply. as for payment versus greencard/citizens versus h1b's, it depends on the company. I know some companies that do pay the same for both, but I can name at least 5 'reputable' (or at least, large, household name) companies that my coworkers told me had different, lower pay scales for the h1b workers that they actively avoided working for, even after getting a greencard. But since i've not worked for one directly (as far as i know anyway), i'm not going to name names.

joshAg 13y ago

I did some more research after leaving my last comment, and the part i was talking about was "New employment must be the 'same or similar' occupational classification," [1] which according to my coworkers means you can't switch amongst QA engineer, dev/software engineer, and manager. The dev <-> QA switch probably isn't very common, but dev/qa -> management is apparently an issue, since green-cards for Indians with a masters take roughly a decade of waiting on an h1b to get (again, this is according to my coworkers, not something i have direct experience with). [1]: http://immigrationroad.com/green-card/ac21-portability-change-jobs.php http://immigrationroad.com/green-card/ac21-portability-chang...

smartician 13y ago
Note that all this only applies to those whose priority dates became current due to the USCIS fiasco of July 2007, and filed I-485 at that time. Everyone who started the GC process later and is waiting for their PD to become current cannot invoke AC21. Frustrating! From the page you linked: "Hundreds of thousands of people were able to file I-485 applications under the July Visa Bulletin of 2007"
- hpagey 13y ago
  Correct, so it was not a fiasco for people who were able to apply for Adjustment of Status i-485. This happened in 2009 too. I hope it keeps on happening every few years. At least people can get EAD which gives you ability to work anywhere in the US.

hpagey 13y ago

Adding to my previous post, For a GC application to apply for 485 your PD needs to be current. India EB2 and EB3 is heavily backlogged. China EB2 situation is better than India EB2. If a GC application's or its spouse's country of birth is not India or China (ROW category, Rest Of World) , the PD moves really fast in EB2. I think its current now.