Employer Withholding the H1B original Documents & I-94

Employer has been withholding my original H1B original documents and I-94 and I797 and won;t give them back until I work for 24 months.

Can I transfer my visa to another employer with my recent pay stubs, LCA documents and Receipt Number from USCIS? What all documents is required for Visa transfer to another employer?

 

Really looking forward to some help and guidance here.

I can understand why the employer is doing this but action to withold I-797 and I-94 originals from beneficiary is a hostile illegal act. I-94 and I-797 are key documents needed for the transfer and your present employer knows you are helpless without these. Have you signed an employment contract for 24 months? Or is this just a placement company as acting employer? Your present project site manager has the right to request these documents.

Dr. Sandeep Shankar, Colorado Heights University, Denver, CO 80223, USA. www.chu.edu, sshankar@chu.edu

Scan Copies will also do AFAIK… Check with ur new employer/attorney

I have signed some documents but AFAIK such documents are illegal since they circumvent the ‘AT WILL’ employment rules. Do you agree?

Absolutely illegal. Just because you have signed them does not make any part of this legal on part of the company that is holding your documents. You must be a highly skilled professional this company is not willing to let go. Look at this example - Company X got an SAP professional from India to work at Pepsi. The base rate was $215 / hour offered by Pepsi, company X offered consultant $115/hour. At $100 / hour margin, they asked consultant to surrender passport and all documents for two years - too valuable to let go. Consultant was trapped. I asked Consultant to have Pepsi HR call company X and surrender all immigration documents in original for ‘internal evaluation’. Now Consultant works directly with Pepsi at $225/hour.

You do NOT need any originals for transfer. In fact, transfer is nothing but the new employer is applying for a new H1B visa petitoin for you, just that your application is not counted towards the yearly H1B Cap. Dont need to worry. As long as you have the receipt number, that should be sufficient so that you can check online at USCIS to say that it is not revoked. In US employment is at will. You just need to make sure the USCIS receipt number is yours.

You should request a copy of your I-797 from USCIS. You can do it using FOIA . Read below.

Thanks to all of you for your replies. Really appreciate it.
Under FOIA, can I ask for my I-797 and I94 copies? What are the timelines for this request?
And if yes, is it possible to get it posted to my address? I don’t want my employer to know about it.

Thanks in advance.

You can read the FAQs, it will list all of them. You can call the USCIS to get full info.