Renewing old H1B Visa

[rb8163]

Hi There,

Is it possible to renew old H1B visa? i stayed in US for 2years 6 months with H1B visa, later i went back to my home country, stayed for 1 year 6 months and returned to US with L1visa. Now i would like to renew my old H1B visa which got expired in 06/18/2010. Appreciate your inputs to my question.

[shervin143]

Visa and petition are two different things. I hope you are talking about the petition. One H1B CAP is valid for 6 years and it is the time spend in U.S in L1 + H1B combined. As long as you haven't used all 6 years in that CAP, any U.S employer can file a new H1B petition using the CAP from your previous H1B approval notice (it doesn't matter whether it is expired or valid currently) and request an immediate start date. Once the petition gets approved, if you leave U.S and want to re-enter back in H1B status, you need to get the H1B visa stamped in the passport based on the newly approved H1B petition.