The Immigration and Naturalization Service and Department of State have traded a series of letters in recent months addressing the issue of whether an H-1B beneficiary who changes H-1B employers must obtain a new H-1B visa in his or her passport. In March 1995, the INS indicated in a meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association that “a new NIV [nonimmigrant visa] is not generally needed to reflect a change of petitioner only.” In an August 1996 letter from Cornelius D. (Dick) Scully, III, of the Department of State’s Office of Legislation, Regulation, and Advisory Assistance of the Visa Office to Yvonne LeFleur of INS states that a visa could not remain valid for a period longer than a petition approval, but also indicated that the revocation of a petition by INS would invalidate a visa. A second H-1B approval would not invalidate the first since there are situations involving “concurrent employment.” INS has not yet made a decision in cases of sequential employment. The revocation of a visa by the INS because the beneficiary is no longer performing the services described in the petition, the visa will no longer be valid as of the date of the petition revocation. The INS replied in a letter dated August 29, 1996 that an alien with a valid H-1B visas may use the visa after a change of employers even if the alien had been in H-4 status between jobs. Also, the employer must not have revoked the H-1B petition.
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