How Soon After I Start Work With My Green Card Sponsor Can I Switch Jobs?

In order to get a work-related green card, it’s required to have a sponsor company. For many, getting offered employment and the possibility of a green card to the United States may seem like a dream come true. However, just like most Americans, you may receive other employment offers once you start working officially inside the United State’s borders.

This brings up many questions for green card holders. Some of the most common include:

• Can I Take A Job In A Similar Field?
• Is My Green Card Tied To My Current Employer?
• Can I Accept A Job In A Different Field?
• Can I Accept A Job In Another City?

While it’s always highly recommended to enlist the help of an employment immigration attorney Los Angeles to answer all of your green card related questions, we’re going to go over some general answers below.

Getting Familiar With AC21

To provide you with the best legal immigration help Los Angeles, we’re going to introduce you to AC21. This is the American Competitiveness In The Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 or AC21 Act. It was a key provision Congress passed that calls for job-flexibility for green card holders during their long-delayed application process.

Your work visas attorneys Los Angeles can explain why it takes such a long time for green card applications to be approved. According to AC21, any immigrant who has filed for an I-485 Application To Adjust Status (known informally as the green card application) may accept a similar job with another employer. This may happen after the I-485 form is considered pending for a minimum of 180 days. This job transfer doesn’t affect the immigrant’s approval of the I-485 application.

What Is Considered Similar?

As an employment visa lawyer Los Angeles will tell you, the job must be fairly similar to the one that you were already employed at. Your immigration labor attorney Los Angeles can assist you in evaluating whether a potential job would be considered similar or not. USCIS uses the judgment of the previous job duties, experience, education, training, skills, certification, license requirement, and salary to determine similarities. They will also consider the Department of Labor’s occupational codes in their decision according to legal immigration help Los Angeles.

Your employment immigration attorney Los Angeles can tell you that simply looking for a job with the same job title isn’t necessarily the end of the digging. USCIS will dig deeper to ensure that the jobs are similar. It doesn’t matter if they have the same job title or not. It’s always advisable to consult work visa attorneys Los Angeles to determine if a job offer is similar to the job that you have in regards to USCIS evaluation.

The whole reason behind AC21 is to ensure that you truly intend to work in that industry. If you leave your sponsor employer within the first few weeks of receiving your green card, it signifies that you were just trying to use them to get citizenship into the United States. Any employment visa lawyer Los Angeles will tell you that green cards are awarded based on the specific needs of the country. If you’re still unsure of whether or not a specific job transfer is legal for you to do, you should hire an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles to help.