Basically I got a call from HR on a Thursday saying my work visa transfer got denied so I had to pack up and leave the US by Monday. Currently overseas sorting out my situation - my girlfriend and all my friends stateside, as well as my family here, are still in shock.
Background: I'm an analyst in the US office of a global investment bank. I had gotten my H1B visa at my first company doing investment banking out of college - I switched over to a new company last month, also doing investment banking. When applying for the H1B transfer (mainly done by the company's retained immigration law firm) I got RFE-ed and denied based on my new job not qualifying as a "Specialized Occupation" (in the denial letter somehow the US gov is convinced that investment banking analysts shouldn't be a job that requires a college degree?!). I reviewed the H1B transfer application and the job description seemed similar enough to my H1B application that was successful last year.
To non-US citizens working in investment banking: I wanted to pick your brains on how to make my next H1B application not get denied. I understand the "any comments here shouldn't be taken as official legal advice... blah blah", but wondering if there were any specific key-words or attributes in the application (mainly the job description) that you had incorporated by suggestion of your lawyers or others? FYI my undergraduate degree was in Economics and a STEM-qualifying quantitative field.
Appreciate any help in advance!
All I can say is that fucking sucks. Sorry
Go to the London office and then have your firm apply again for the h1b. Really common problem with most expats across tech and finance.
Everyone reading this who's ever signed an RFE letter for someone (I've signed one that was written by a top law firm on behalf of a VP at a BB) should dig through their email, find the letter, remove identifying language, change around the boilerplate language a bit so it's not tied back to your letter, and then send it to OP via DM.
That's what I will be doing. OP, as I mentioned this was for a VP candidate but it was good enough to get him through the RFE and should at least be somewhat useful. Will be in your messages shortly.
A little late to the draw here, but I'd recommend a law firm: Cummings and Partners They specialize in Immigration law. Primarily from a Canadian perspective (that's their focus), but because of the volume of Canadian cases, they've gotten very good at handling these issues in general.
They run a session every year for CANY (Canadian Association of New York) which is usually sold out. They are also currently doing some immigration work for me also (more than satisfactory).
https://canada-usa.com
The "get out of the country" advice wasn't totally ass covering. I got similar advice when I was once in a similar situation, and was told to leave and come back on B1 visa (visitor) or something else. Basically, you don't want to accrue "out of status days". Because you're H1B has expired, technically you would be here without a visa which is not great. At best, you should leave and come back under B (or change status or something).
FYI - for technical reasons I don't fully understand, I was told it would be easy to transfer my H1B within a month or two of leaving my last employer, but after that it become a bit more complicated. Beyond that time frame, you can still do the transfer (no cap limitations), but you basically have to be reapproved (and have some exposure to RFE as you learned the hard way).
DM me if you have any specific questions for your situation.