Your H-1B Was Filed by Your Employer’s Attorney. Your Green Card Strategy Should Be Filed by Yours

There is a moment in the career of almost every H-1B professional where the immigration situation becomes genuinely complex; and the complexity arrives at exactly the point where the employer-side attorney’s scope ends. A promotion that changes the specialty occupation classification. A merger that creates successor-in-interest questions. A PERM denial that requires an appeal strategy. A priority date that is finally current, right as the professional is considering leaving for a better opportunity. In every one of these moments, the professional discovers for the first time that the attorney managing their case has been managing it for the employer, not for them. IS Law Firm built its Independent Immigration Counsel practice for the moment that discovery arrives; and ideally, for the years before it does.

Your Employer’s Attorney Is Managing a Green Card Strategy. It May Not Be the One That Actually Serves You.

Consider a pattern that comes up often. A senior engineer at a government contractor in Fairfax County has been in H-1B status for six years. His company filed a PERM labor certification two years ago. The PERM is approved. The I-140 is pending. He has a priority date in the EB-2 category. The employer’s attorney has advised him that the process is on track. What the employer’s attorney has not told him: depending on his publication record, patents, and professional recognition, his credentials may support an EB-1A extraordinary ability self-petition, which does not require employer sponsorship and does not require a labor certification. Whether an EB-1A filing would put him in a more favorable visa bulletin position depends on his country of chargeability and the EB-1 cutoff dates in effect at the time, but historically the EB-1A category has moved at a different pace than EB-2 PERM-based cases for many professionals, and it could give him a green card path that does not depend on his current employer. The employer’s attorney has no reason to raise this with him. IS Law Firm does.

The NIW pathway is the same story. A research scientist at a biotech company in Tysons Corner is being sponsored under PERM through her employer. What no one in that process has evaluated is whether she qualifies for a National Interest Waiver under the Dhanasar framework; which would allow her to self-petition in the EB-2 category without a job offer, without a labor certification, and with a visa number that may be immediately available depending on her country of chargeability. Independent counsel is the only practice positioned to evaluate that option, because independent counsel’s scope is her interests, not the employer’s workforce plan.

Green Card Self-Petition Guidance for EB-1A and NIW is one of IS Law Firm’s core Independent Immigration Counsel For Professionals And Employees services for precisely this reason. The evaluation is not a separate legal engagement that competes with the employer’s program. It is a parallel analysis of your personal options, conducted independently, that is designed to give you a clearer picture of the pathways available to you; including the ones your employer’s attorney has no obligation to mention. Career-Transition Immigration Strategy is the second core service: if you are considering leaving your current employer, changing industries, or accepting a role that would affect your visa status, the strategic planning designed to support your immigration position requires independent counsel before the move, not after.

Your employer’s attorney filed your H-1B. That is their job. Your green card strategy, your self-petition options, and your career mobility rights belong to a different conversation; one that begins with your own attorney. Start it today with a Personal Immigration Status Review.

Book Your Consultation! Stop the Delay!

Ismail Shahtakhtinski · Founder & Managing Attorney

IS Law Firm · Founder And Investor Immigration

No Obligation · One-on-One Strategy Review

P.: (703) 527-1779

E.: law@islawfirm.com

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