any immigration lawyers here?

[Semidevil]

I have a quick question.

I have a friend who has been in the U.S for around 7 years, and when she first came here, it was for school. She came on a J1 visa....She wants to be a U.S resident, so today, I talked to someone, who said hat usually, w/ a J1 visa, it means you must go back and not qualified to stay in U.S...

anyone confirm this? And also, does that automatically mean "no," and there is no way around it?

P.S, I"m talking about applying to Be resident, not like marrying or whatever....

 

[zimu]

you need an H1 visa to remain in the u.s. for work purposes. J1 or F1 are student visas, where your time is limited as well as the period of time you're allowed to hold employment.

H1's are darned hard to get these days (trust me) cause of the resources you have to put in to apply for that etc.

so yeah. if she wants to stay in the u.s. she has to find a job that will sponsor her work visa.

as for residency permit, she doesn't qualify after being in the u.s. for 7 years on J1.

alternate workaround is get married. although get married to a US citizen, NOT just a green card holder. green card holders cannot sponsor residency visas for immigrants any more, from what i've heard of a friend who was in that boat.

 

[Semidevil]

well, the thing is that she first started on a J1 visa. Then, after that, she went to an F1 visa. Now, after she graduated, she is working and is using an H1B visa........so we didnt' know what the optoins are...

 

[zimu]

that makes a lot more sense.
H1B is what she needs to keep working in the u.s. legally. i think they're valid for 3 years if i recall, for a maximum of 6 years?

if she wants to apply for a green card, she'd have to ask the company who's sponsoring her H1B to sponsor her green card. if they don't agree to that, they can sponsor her H1 upto the maximum time but then after that she's out on her own. and basically no company will hire her after this point cause the only way she'd be legally employable would be if they sponsored her green card (This is after the maximum duration of her H1 runs out.)

so if she's in, say, year 6 of her H1 and her company will not sponsor her green card, she should start looking for another employer who will do so fast, so that she doesn't have to leave the u.s.

 

[zimu]

p.s. you've figured i'm not an immigration lawyer; i've just done a lot of reading up cause i was in the situation of trying to find a legal way to remain in the u.s. after graduating from college. i failed, i'm in pakistan now, but hopefully will be back for grad school next year.

sister's in the whole H1 ordeal right now, looking for a green card sponsor cause her current employer will not sponsor it. but she has 3 years remaining- she just got her H1 renewed.

 

[AMCRambler]

Does Pakistan suck or something? Why's everybody want to come here? We're all infidels!

 

[zimu]

lol. i just have no ties to this country. parents were born here. i was born and raised in east africa. i know nobody here (pakistan.) i can't go back to east africa cause although i know people, its once again impossible for me to get a visa.

i've gone to an american high school, an american college, stayed back a year in san fran and new york. in my heart, thats where i wanna be, even though all you guys are infidels 😉