Question:
I want to
break my contract and get another job on the other side of the country.
Am I allowed to do this or will I be breaking a rule and jeopardizing
my green card if I leave? If I have a green card am I now free to do
whatever I want? Would I be able to take a month or two off or do I
have to be working all the time? My green card is not conditional as
far as I am aware.
Answer:
I am a green card holder, and it was an employment based one...I am a
nurse and my agency was my sponsor. I came over on a 21-month contract,
and at my green card interview I was asked whether I intended to take
up post on my arrival, and to promise to start the job when I arrived
in the US. I did this, and I have now been here 4 months. I want to
break my contract and get another job on the other side of the country.
Am I allowed to do this or will I be breaking a rule and jeopardizing
my green card if I leave? If I have a green card am I now free to do
whatever I want? Would I be able to take a month or two off or do I
have to be working all the time? My green card is not conditional as
far as I am aware.
I think
that maybe to be on the safe side you should make the period you have
been working for the employer at least 6 mnths. I have been told by my
lawyer 6-12 months is good. This shows the authorities that you did
indeed intend to work for them.
I think in practice however, unless
you really upset your employer, there should not be a problem,
particularly if your 485 application was pending for more than 180 days.
It sounds like you got an immigrant visa through consular processing.
There is really no hard-and-fast answer to your question, because there
are two conflicting rules involved here:
- Green Card holders enjoy the freedom to accept any job, anywhere in the
USA (except for certain government jobs).
- holders of an employment-based Green Card are expected to intend to work
"permanently" for the sponsoring employer. Clearly, "permanently" does not
mean "until your death" - that would be entirely unreasonable. It has
never been clearly defined what it actually means, and very much depends
on the specific circumstances. For instance, if you want to move because
you met somebody after you arrived and plan to get married, that would go
over differently from you moving because you already had a job waiting for
you before you arrived in the USA. It would also depend on whether you
quit, were fired or laid off, and a gazillion other things.
That said, there are some rules of thumb - again, they can vary depending
on both circumstances and on which lawyer you happen to ask.
The first rule of thumb is that if you already worked for that employer
for a while on an H-1B (or any other status), then leaving after just a
month or two shouldn't be a problem.
The second rule of thumb is that if you only started the job after
arriving in the USA, depending on the lawyer who tells you this, two years
in that job would be completely safe. Most lawyers will tell you that one
year is plenty, and some more aggressive lawyers mention as little as six
months.
All that said, realistically my guess is that USCIS does not have too much
interest in such cases. It might come up during naturalization
proceedings, if you decide to get naturalized. Other than that, chances
are that USCIS wouldn't follow up on it (even though they could, based on
the AR-11 that you would file for your address change).
Still, personally I would wait at least two more months.
don't quite know what you mean by 485, 180 rule (AC21), or consular
processing. Could you explain?
I will have worked for my employer for 6
months by the time I intend to leave.
AC21 applied only to I-485 processing, which is an alternative to Consular
processing.
If you decide to choose Consular processing to get the GC approved, there is
no AC21 applicable, so you would have to continue to be employed by the same
employer until the CP is completed and you exit (for CP interview) and
re-enter the country. Of course, you would have to work for some more time
after GC too, to prove your intent.
In I-485 however, if your case has been pending for more than 180 days, you
can change to a 'similar' job, which is a provision of AC21.
But rockgurl is taking of an approved GC case with no conditions, where
neither of these issues apply. Rockgurl may have to work with the current
employer long enough to show that the intent of 'permanent employment' with
this employer was real. Like Ingo said, how long one should work is
subjective, and perhaps the USCIS does not care once the GC is approved.
Consular processing means that you applied for an immigrant visa at a US
consulate. Basically, if you used consular processing, you would have
received a sealed brown envelope and taken that with you on your flight to
the USA. It is one of the two main ways of getting a Green Card (the other
being filing an I-485 within the USA itself).
AC21 is a law that Congress passed in response to USCIS taking too long to
process I-485 applications. It allows people to change jobs even before
the I-485 has been approved (actually, AC21 does a couple other things,
too, but that is the clause that Rex was referring to).
