L1B to H1B - Can I get 6 full years on H1B?

I am currently (as on 29 August 2018) in USA on L1B Visa. My L1B is maxing out on 29 March 2019. This year my company applied for H1B (applied on 1st April 2018 as consular processing - not change of status) and my application in picked in lottery.

Question (with assumption that H1B will get approved):

If I go back to India on max out of L1B (on 29th March 2019) and stay there (out of USA) for 1 year, before coming back to USA on H1B - Am I eligible to get six full year’s visa? Please note that my H1B application is filed in April 2018 (as consular processing), while I was in USA only.

Yes , will get 6 full year and no need to go back home too .

Please convert you status to H1B before L1B expires .

Hi Abhay, thanks for your reply.

Six full years - I mean by, 6 more years after completing 5 years on L1B. I don’t think I will get it if I do CoS before expiration of L1B. In such case, (L1B + H1B) total tenure will be of 6 years. In case of COS, I will get only one addition year. I am looking for total 6 years stay on H1B and hence to reset counter, I proposed 1 year out of USA stay. Please suggest.

In this case , yes you need to have cooling period of 1 year .
Having said that stay on B1 comes under cooling period . So I would suggest get B1 process and stay in US for 4-5month and for 1-2 months in India , do this twice . This way you wouldn’t loss your client and project … post 1 year anyway you will be on H1 with 6 year .

All the best .

Hi Abhay, thanks for B1 idea. Its great option. But my worry point is -

Will I get 6 years on H1B too post to cooling period? My company’s visa advisor is saying that - “I will get 1 additional year only, even if I go back and spend 1 year in March 2019. To qualify for fresh term of 6 years, I have to apply H1 under CAP after completing 365 days outside US”. Is this advise correct?