L1B to H1B from same company

[nayankk]

Hi,

This site has helped me a lot to gain deeper understanding of immigration process, thank you!

I have following questions. I work for a company A on L1B VISA valid till 2015. My company will be initiating a COS to H1B in this March. I have following questions on this process:
a. I plan to travel to India in the month of May. Will my H1B application gets void if I travel while my application is under processing?
b. Assuming that my H1B application gets selected and approved, does my status gets automatically changed to H1B on October 1st?
c. Will I have an option to change my status back to L1B after moving to H1b starting Oct 1st?
d. If I apply for H1b as "Consular Processing" from my company A (instead of COS from L1b to H1b) and my application gets approved, will I have an option to switch back to L1B after Oct 1st?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[raghvi]

Hi,

This site has helped me a lot to gain deeper understanding of immigration process, thank you!

I have following questions. I work for a company A on L1B VISA valid till 2015. My company will be initiating a COS to H1B in this March. I have following questions on this process:
a. I plan to travel to India in the month of May. Will my H1B application gets void if I travel while my application is under processing?
b. Assuming that my H1B application gets selected and approved, does my status gets automatically changed to H1B on October 1st?
c. Will I have an option to change my status back to L1B after moving to H1b starting Oct 1st?
d. If I apply for H1b as "Consular Processing" from my company A (instead of COS from L1b to H1b) and my application gets approved, will I have an option to switch back to L1B after Oct 1st?

Thanks in advance for any help.

COS is considered abandoned if one travels outside US before it is approved.
a. Yes if you travel before it is approved. H1 petition as such may not become void, it may be approved, but COS will be denied.
b. Yes thats the purpose of COS. But as I said since you traveled before COS approval it would most likely be approved as consular process.
c. Yes, only by travelling out of US and re entering on L1 visa. This is called "leap frog"
d. Consular processing means you would continue to be in L1 status, and your status wouldnt change to H1. It will change to H1 only when you leave US, get H1 stamped in your passport , and re enter on H1 OR by filing an amended H1 petition to convert it from consular to COS .

This is my opinion not legal advice.