CASE: H-1B Change of Employer
PETITIONER: Sensor Device Development Company
BENEFICIARY: Japanese Mechanical Engineer
LOCATION: Irvine, CA
Our client is a leading company in providing innovative sensors and health monitoring solutions to problems related to maintenance and safety of civil infrastructure and other structural / material systems. They contacted our office in early February 2016 to seek legal assistance from our office for their foreign employee. The beneficiary is from Japan and obtained his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. The proffered position for the Beneficiary is a Principal Engineer which we argued qualifies as a specialty occupation.
The foreign beneficiary in this case already had his H-1B visa from his previous employer. However, his H-1B visa was not expired yet, and he wanted to extend his H-1B status on a change of employer basis.
Once retained, our office promptly filed the H-1B visa petition with various supporting documents on February 26, 2016 via premium processing service. Since this petition was based on a change of employer, we argued that this petition was exempt from the annual cap of the H-1B. There were no Requests for Evidence during the processing of the H-1B. Eventually, our client’s H-1B Petition was approved on March 8, 2016. The H-1B approval had the duration of March 2016 to March 2019. Now the Beneficiary can work for his Petitioner-Employer as an H-1B visa holder and he can work there for next three years.