H1B Came Baack to India

[shankha23]

I started working on OPT in US from Feb 2012. I got my H1B Visa in October 2012. In Feb 2013 I had to return back to India permanently for family reasons. The expiry date on my VISA is OCT 2015.
I wish to go back to US now for work. Will my employer have to file a new application and only if I VISA is accepted I will be allowed to go or my VISA can be reactivated.

Thanks for your help.

[raghvi]

I started working on OPT in US from Feb 2012. I got my H1B Visa in October 2012. In Feb 2013 I had to return back to India permanently for family reasons. The expiry date on my VISA is OCT 2015.
I wish to go back to US now for work. Will my employer have to file a new application and only if I VISA is accepted I will be allowed to go or my VISA can be reactivated.

Thanks for your help.

As long as the older petition is still valid and the latest employment/client letter are available you can travel to US. The larger question you have to ask your employer is if the original job offer at the location specified is still available for you.

This is my opinion not legal advice.

[shankha23]

I had asked a Immigration lawyer. Following is his response.

"Yes, if you receive a qualifying job offer from a U.S. company, you can submit a new application for the H-1B and you will not have to go through the lottery system again. It is not as easy as “reactivating” a visa. You have to go through the same Department of Labor and USCIS application steps that you did for the first visa. But since you have already been counted against the numerical quota, you do not need to deal with that again. If you do get a job offer, we would be happy to assist you with the DOL and USCIS application process.".

Any idea if I am not counted against the numerical quota how much time it takes to process my application.

Thanks

[shankha23]

Any idea if I do not have to go through the numerical system how much time it will take to get the VISA. Does that mean I need not wait till October to start my work. I can start before that.