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Do I need to work full-time on an H-1b visa? Can I get a second job?

An office full of 3 employees

H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that permits a company to hire workers in specialty occupations.  This visa category requires that the beneficiary (the foreign worker) have a bachelor’s degree, and the petitioner (the U.S. company) can employ the worker for up to six years.

Many people think that the H1b employment must be full-time, but that’s not the case. It is completely fine if your H1b employment is only part-time. In certain cases though if your H-1b employment is part-time and the wage being paid is low, the Consulate may wonder if you will be able to support yourself in the U.S.

Moving from part-time to full-time employment

If you got initially sponsored for an H1b part-time employment, and you want to switch your employment from part time to full time, the current employer would have to file a new LCA and a new H1b petition to notify the Department of Labor and USCIS of this change.

If you want to start another H-1B employment, the new employer has to file a concurrent H-1B petition

If you want to get another job on the H-1B, the new employer needs to file a concurrent H-1B petition with USCIS. You cannot just start working for the new employer.

Scenario 1

The first employment is cap-subject employment and the second employment is a cap-subject employment.

In this case, the second employer will have to go through the H-1B lottery to be able to sponsor you. If your registration is selected in the lottery (that is run every year in March/April), the new employer will be able to file an H1b petition with USCIS. Once USCIS approves the petition, you can start the new employment. Please note that the new employment can be either part-time or full-time, as long as you are reasonably able to concurrently perform work for both employers.

Scenario 2

The first employment a is cap-subject employment and the second employment is a cap-exempt employment.

If your new employer is a cap exempt employer, then the employer can file an h1b petition for concurrent employment at any time and does not have to go through the lottery process. The new employer has to file a concurrent petition with USCIS and you can take advantage of the H-1B portability and start working for the new employer once the petition is received by USCIS.

Scenario 3

The first employment a is cap-exempt employment and the second employment is also a cap exempt employment.

This is fine, and as in the scenario above, the second employer can file the concurrent employment petition at any time. You can again take advantage of the H1b portability rule.

Scenario 4

The first employment a is cap-exempt employment and the second employment is a cap-subject employment.

In this scenario, the new cap-subject employer does not have to go through the lottery process, and can file an H1b concurrent petition at anytime. The approval date will be limited to the approval dates on the cap-exempt petition through. You can take advantage of the H1b portability and start working for the new employer upon receipt of the petition by USCIS. See our blog post Concurrent cap-exempt and cap-subject employment here.

What is the procedure to get a concurrent H1b visa?

As mentioned above, the new employer has to file a concurrent H1b visa petition with USCIS. This means that the new employers needs to file a new LCA and an entire H1b visa petition with USCIS. You can take advantage of the H1b portability rules and you can start working for the new employer once the concurrent visa petition is received by USCIS. To take advantage of the H1b portability, you need to meet certain requirements.

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