CASE: H-1B Visa Petition (Change of Employer)
PETITIONER: Hotel-Chain Company
BENEFICIARY: Hotel General Manager
Our client is the nation’s fastest-growing extended hotel stay chain company in Ohio. They contacted our office in early June to seek legal assistance from our office for their foreign employee. The beneficiary is from Pakistan and has extensive work history in the United States as a General Manager in one of the leading brand hotels for 13 years. This proffered position is a “specialty occupation” because the minimum requirement for this position are a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration / Hotel Management or equivalent.
The foreign beneficiary in this case already had his H-1B visa from his previous employer in a similar industry. However, his H-1B visa was not expired yet, and he wanted to extend his H-1B status based on a change in employer.
Once retained, our office promptly filed the H-1B visa petition with various supporting documents on June 20, 2011 via regular processing. Since this petition was based on a change in employer, it was exempted from the annual H-1B cap. On August 12, 2011, the USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) regarding his past pay stubs to evidence his continued H-1B status. During the validity of his previous H-1B status, his previous employer was acquired but everything pertaining to his position, from the duties to the location to the salary, stayed the same. But he did not file an amendment of his H-1B. In response to that issue, our office promptly filed a Response to the RFE on August 30, 2011 which included the paystubs from the previous two employers. We cited INA § 214(c)(9)(A)(ii) which states that “an amended H-1B petition shall not be required where the petitioning employer is involved in a corporate restructuring, including but not limited to a merger, acquisition, or consolidation, where a new corporate entity succeeds to the interests and obligations of the original petitioning employer and where the terms and conditions of employment remain the same but for the identity of the petitioner.”
Eventually, our client’s H-1B Petition was approved on September 20, 2011. Moreover, the Beneficiary’s wife and minor son’s H-4 status was properly changed as well. Now the Beneficiary can continue working for his Petitioner-Employer as an H-1B visa holder until 2013.
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