H1-B and time spent outside US

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onttonc
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:08 pm

H1-B and time spent outside US

Post by onttonc »

Hello All:

I have seen posts where people talk about recapturing H1-B time spent outside of US.

I have about 3 yrs left on my H1-B. My company can allow me to stay in Canada and work remotely. I can travel once a week in a month to US for meetings etc.

Does it means I can extend my H1-B beyond 6 yrs as I will work maybe 15-20 weeks in a yr in US and rest of the time I am working from outside.

I know from taxation point of view it will be a nightmare but this way my spouse can work in Canada and I can continue my employment in US beyond 6 yr time frame.

Please share your thoughts on this approach. Is it possible ?
nelsona
Posts: 18311
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Post by nelsona »

Recapuring can only occur at the time of submitting an H1 petition. So, you would need to count BACK over the past six years and demonstrate that you were out of US for, say, 150 days (including the days up to the date you file your H1 petition).

So, CIS would at best grant you an H1 extension for 150 day from the expiry of the current one, that is 5 months. You could not get one that was good for a few days a month over the next xx months. So, this would be a rather costly method of staying on H1, as each petition would get you less and less days and still require an LCA and full H1 payment.

A TN would be much better option if possible.
nelsona non grata. Non pro. Please Search previous posts, no situation is unique as you might think. Happy Browsing :D
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