Change from Student to Working Visa

[Flo93 0]

Hello Everyone,

I am currently a student on my OPT and i am about to change my visa to a working visa after i talked to my employee and they are willing to sponsor for me. If anyone went through this please can you show me the procedure.

Also, can i take care of the process by myself or is it necessary to hire a layer? Please let me know how it works,and i need to know does this process take a long time? My eligibility to work is gonna end in 5 months and i wanna be able to work after it expires.

Thank you in advance!

[kzielu 1,154]

Hello Everyone,

I am currently a student on my OPT and i am about to change my visa to a working visa after i talked to my employee and they are willing to sponsor for me. If anyone went through this please can you show me the procedure.

Also, can i take care of the process by myself or is it necessary to hire a layer? Please let me know how it works,and i need to know does this process take a long time? My eligibility to work is gonna end in 5 months and i wanna be able to work after it expires.

Thank you in advance!

Assuming we're talking H-1B and your company is not quota exempt, you're not going to get it until October next year, so you probably need to figure out how to stay in status.

No, you can't take care of it yourself, your employer needs to hire the lawyer to do that.

[Pickle 65]

The lawyer at your current employer's company need to start the process. The petition need to be sent in by April 1st 2015 and you will not be able to start working until October 2015. You should probably look at this: http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/h-1b-fiscal-year-fy-2015-cap-season

[Mollie09 1,543]

I cannot stress enough that you cannot look into this yourself. There is nothing for you to file, this process has barely anything to do with you.

[Boiler 46,270]

One of the nice things about an Employment visa is that it is mainly down to the Employer.

There are other visa types than the H1b but that is the most common one in these cases.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hello Everyone,

I am currently a student on my OPT and i am about to change my visa to a working visa after i talked to my employee and they are willing to sponsor for me. If anyone went through this please can you show me the procedure.

Also, can i take care of the process by myself or is it necessary to hire a layer? Please let me know how it works,and i need to know does this process take a long time? My eligibility to work is gonna end in 5 months and i wanna be able to work after it expires.

Thank you in advance!

You can not take care of the process by yourself.

US law requires your employer to pay for the process. The employer hires the lawyer. The lawyer works for the employer and acts on the employer's behalf to get you a work visa.

You are unlikely to get a work visa within 5 months. The next opportunity to apply for an H1b visa starts in April 2015 for visas issued in October 2015.

[Mollie09 1,543]

You are unlikely to get a work visa within 5 months. The next opportunity to apply for an H1b visa starts in April 2015 for visas issued in October 2015.

This is true unless OP or employer is cap-exempt. He would also be eligible for a cap-gap extension in that case, but it seems like there was no application done in time for 2014.

[iishlegend 1]

The lawyer at your current employer's company need to start the process. The petition need to be sent in by April 1st 2015 and you will not be able to start working until October 2015. You should probably look at this: http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/h-1b-fiscal-year-fy-2015-cap-season

i have looked through the petition documents. lawyer is optional, if your employer knows how to file and have the company documents ready. you can still continue working under the cap-gap extension, if you are the beneficiary of a timely filed petition. usually it starts with filing the lca. if this is the first time your employer is hiring a h1b worker, then a lawyer is recommended.