CASE: H-1B Change of Employer
PETITIONER: Architectural Design Company
BENEFICIARY: Turkish Architect
LOCATION: New York, NY
Our client is an architectural design firm headquartered in New York City. They contacted our office in March 2015 to seek assistance from our office for their foreign employee. The beneficiary is from Turkey and she obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in architecture. The proffered position for the Beneficiary is an architect which we argued qualifies as a specialty occupation.
The foreign beneficiary in this case already had her H-1B from her previous employer which was in a similar industry. Her H-1B status was not yet expired, and she wanted to extend her H-1B status on a change of employer basis.
After retention, our office promptly filed the H-1B visa petition with various supporting documents on March 24, 2015 via regular processing. Since this petition was based on a change of employer, 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 May 25, 2015. Now the Beneficiary can work for her Petitioner-Employer as an H-1B visa holder and she can work there for the next three years.