H1-B Visa Process

Happy Sunday Bloggie!

The first day of March has been a little disappointing. Weather-wise that is. I was just getting happy that the nasty wind had gone and hopefully the snow on the ground would melt away also. Sadly, it snowed and sleeted all day today! My morning commute tomorrow is going to be very rough. Arrgh!!

As promised, here's the H1-B (immigrant worker) visa process and tips as best as I can. I'll start with things I wish someone had told me while in school.

1. Start applying for jobs at the beginning of your final year. Latest, the start of your last semester. Time flies by so fast and the H1-B visa can be a long dance. You don't want to wait till the end and let panic set in. Trust me, this was my case. 
2. When you get a job that agrees to sponsor your visa (Congratulations), ask around to see if your employer has done this process before. If they have, great news! If they haven't or haven't done it in a long time, you owe it to yourself to get familiar with the process. 

Here's the outline for the time and links to helpful websites and blogs that provided me all my information when I was in need of some. Here's the USCIS website with all the information about the process.

1. You need to give yourself at least 3 months before your start date if you'll be working for a non-profit/university and so won't need the October 1st start date like others. 3 months might seem like too much, but if your employer is going to submit a prevailing wage determination to the Department of Labour, that could take anywhere from 6 weeks. Unfortunately, this part of the process cannot be expedited. Tip: If your job description is a little vague, make sure that your supervisor explains to very well to your HR. You can also look up position descriptions here, if that'll help in your explanation. Else, if it's wrong, your prevailing wage determination could come back too high because your HR put in the wrong job duties for you. 
2. Make sure that you have the list of all required documents and photocopies of your original documents. Including all past OPT cards. 
3. If your employer uses a lawyer, your situation just got easier. But make sure you're on top pf things. Keep a timeline because I have a couple of friends whose lawyers weren't really doing anything and just let time run out on them. No Bueno.
4. When you get to the point of sending USCIS your documents, there are only two options for the visa. Either you'll be doing a change of status (i.e. you're current status is still valid and needs to be valid by the time your documents get to USCIS) or you'll be doing a consular notification (your status in the U.S. would have expired by the time your documents will get to USCIS or you're applying for this visa outside the U.S.). This is the point where time calculation becomes very important.
5. If you are doing a consular notification, don't freak out! It just means you have to go to an embassy to get interviewed. As long as you have your documents and know what you're job is, you'll do awesome.
6. If you'll be waiting for the October 1st start date but apply early enough and get your application approved, the cap-gap extension will apply to you and you can keep working with your OPT until your new start date. 
7. If you'll be paying for the expedited process, this will only happen when your documents have gone to USCIS. This will guarantee that you get your response in 2 weeks. That cost is definitely worth it. 

All in all, this is a very straightforward process as long as you get lucky with your employer and only start on the right track. If not, you might get stuck in a rut and hopefully, you find a way out like me. Read about some of my experiences here.

You can check out these blogs/ sites. They are the ones I constantly checked during my process (I'll link them as I remember them).
Immihelp, Path2usa,

Of course, if at any point your have any question/concern that I haven't covered about the process here, please feel free to drop a message. Hopefully, I'll be able to help :).

Have an awesome week!!!
Tonia

Oh and even though February is gone, here's some love jam. I love me some Brymo. This one is "Omoge Campus." Enjoy!