H1B Transfer: How to Change Jobs on an H1B

An H1B transfer is the everyday name for what USCIS treats as a new petition: your new employer files its own Form I-129 for you, marked "change of employer," and nothing actually moves from your old employer's file. The rule that makes it work is H-1B portability. USCIS says you "may begin working for the new employer as soon as they properly file a non-frivolous Form I-129 petition on your behalf, or as of the requested start date on that petition, whichever is later." You do not usually go through the lottery again, but you do need the new employer to file before your authorized stay runs out, and timing around that is the whole game.

This post is built from USCIS pages, the regulations and the statute, checked on 17 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. Your employer's immigration attorney is the right person for your own facts.

What an H1B transfer is

Three things happen, and the new employer does all of them:

1. It gets a Labor Condition Application (LCA) certified by the Department of Labor for your new job, wage and worksite.
2. It files a Form I-129 with USCIS. The form instructions describe the "Change of employer" box as the one to select "if you are applying for a beneficiary to begin employment working for a new employer in the same nonimmigrant classification that the beneficiary currently holds."
3. It pays the filing fees, including a Fraud Prevention and Detection fee that applies when hiring an H-1B worker from another employer (more on fees below).

The cap usually does not apply again. The statute at 8 U.S.C. 1184(g)(7) says a worker "who has already been counted, within the 6 years prior to the approval of a petition ... shall not again be counted toward those limitations unless the alien would be eligible for a full 6 years of authorized admission at the time the petition is filed." So if you won the lottery once and have been working in H-1B status, a new employer can file for you at any time of year without a new registration.

The 6-year clock does not reset. USCIS's H-1B page says you may generally be admitted for up to 3 years, extendable to a total of 6. A new employer's petition continues that total. Extensions beyond the sixth year exist for some people with green card cases in progress, and the same page sets out the conditions.

The exception: leaving a cap-exempt employer. If you are on H-1B at a university, an affiliated nonprofit or a research organization and were never counted against the cap, moving to a private company is a different case. USCIS says that "if you are moving from cap-exempt to cap-subject employment, your new employer's H-1B petition will be subject to the H-1B cap," which means a registration in the next lottery, typically in March. Our H-1B cap-exempt guide covers that side.

Portability: when you can start

Portability comes from the statute at 8 U.S.C. 1184(n) and the regulation at 8 CFR 214.2(h)(2)(i)(H). The regulation defines who qualifies. You must be someone:

• who "has been lawfully admitted into the United States in, or otherwise provided, H-1B nonimmigrant status,"
• on whose behalf a non-frivolous H-1B petition for new employment has been filed "before the H-1B nonimmigrant's period of stay authorized by the Secretary of Homeland Security expires," and
• who "has not been employed without authorization in the United States from the time of last admission through the filing of the petition."

If all three hold, you can start on the later of the filing date or the requested start date. Ask your new employer what proof of filing it needs before your first day.

What happens next depends on the decision. USCIS says your employment is authorized until it decides the petition. If it approves, you work for the new employer for the period on the approval. If it denies, "you may continue working for your previous employer if your prior period of authorized employment is still valid, but your authorization to work based on portability ceases upon denial of the petition." That sentence is the reason not to burn the bridge with your old employer until you have an approval.

Changing jobs again while a petition is pending is allowed. The regulation lets you start a further job on the filing of another H-1B petition even while the earlier one is pending. The catch is in the same section: a later petition's extension request "cannot be approved if a request to amend the petition or for an extension of stay in any preceding H-1B portability petition in the succession is denied, unless the beneficiary's previously approved period of H-1B status remains valid." A chain is only as strong as its first link.

Premium processing shortens the wait. USCIS's premium processing page lists H-1B under Form I-129 with "adjudicative action to be taken within 15 business days." The fee is on the USCIS fee schedule.

Steps and documents

The certified LCA is not optional. USCIS's archived guidance on job loss answers the question directly: "a certified LCA is required initial evidence that must accompany a properly filed H-1B petition." That archived page is marked as out of date, so treat its process details as background and the current H-1B page as the rule.

What you will be asked for. The I-129 instructions say that for a change of status, extension of stay or amendment of stay, "evidence of maintenance of status must be included with the new petition," and that the petitioner "may submit copies of the beneficiary's last 2 pay stubs, Form W-2, and other relevant evidence, as well as a copy of the beneficiary's Form I-94, passport, travel document, or I-797." Get these together before you start interviewing:

• your current and past I-797 approval notices,
• your most recent Form I-94 record,
• your passport and visa,
• your last two pay stubs and most recent W-2,
• your degree and transcripts, and any evaluation of a foreign degree, and
• your resume, since the job duties in the petition should match your background.

Fees are the employer's. The I-129 instructions say an employer "seeking approval to employ an H-1B or L nonimmigrant currently working for another employer, must submit an additional Fraud Prevention and Detection fee," and that employers with 50 or more US employees, more than half of them in H-1B or L status, owe an additional fee under Public Law 114-113. They also say the ACWIA training fee "may not be assessed to the beneficiary." Separately, the Department of Labor's rule at 20 CFR 655.731 bars deductions that recoup "attorney fees and other costs connected to the performance of H-1B program functions which are required to be performed by the employer, e.g., preparation and filing of LCA and H-1B petition." Current amounts are on the USCIS fee schedule.

Timing your search

The safest H1B transfer is one where you are still employed when the new petition is filed. Your status is intact, the maintenance of status evidence is recent pay stubs, and a denial leaves you where you started. Search while you work, and do not resign until the new petition has a receipt notice.

If your job ends first, a clock starts. USCIS's H-1B page says that if you are "laid off, fired, quit, or otherwise cease employment," you "may have up to 60 consecutive days or until the end of your authorized validity period, whichever is shorter, to find new employment, change status, or depart the country." The regulation behind it, 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2), says the period is available "once during each authorized validity period," that DHS "may eliminate or shorten this 60-day period as a matter of discretion," and that you may not work during it unless otherwise authorized. Our H1B grace period guide walks through those 60 days after a layoff in more detail. The archived USCIS guidance adds details that change how you plan:

• The grace period "starts the day after termination of employment, which is typically determined based on the last day for which a salary or wage is paid."
• It applies to "voluntary and involuntary cessation of employment."
• It "ends upon any departure from the United States."

Count backwards from day 60. The new employer needs time to make an offer, get an LCA certified and file the I-129. If the LCA alone can take about seven working days, an offer at day 50 leaves almost no room. In practice that means starting applications the week the job ends, aiming at employers that already file change of employer petitions, and asking early in each process whether the company will file for you.

USCIS's own data helps with that last part. The H-1B Employer Data Hub has a "Change of Employer" column counting each employer's approvals and denials for workers moving from another employer. Sort by it. Our post on companies that sponsor H1B explains how to read the columns and build a list from them.

The grace period may go away. On 11 September 2026 DHS published a proposed rule to remove 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2) and stop "providing an up to 60-day discretionary grace period" for H-1B and several other worker classifications. DHS's own analysis says that some affected workers "may incur lost income" because "they would need to leave the country instead of being able to stay and begin new employment without departing." Comments are open until 10 November 2026. It is a proposal, not a final rule, but if it is finalized as written, a layoff would leave no buffer at all, and being employed while you search would matter more than ever.

The $100,000 payment and other new costs

The $100,000 H-1B payment does not apply to a typical transfer. USCIS says the proclamation does not apply to a petition "requesting an amendment, change of status, or extension of stay for an alien inside the United States where the alien is granted such amendment, change, or extension." It does apply if the petition requests consular notification, port of entry notification or pre-flight inspection, or if USCIS finds you ineligible for the extension. When we checked on 17 October 2026 the payment was not being collected because of court orders, but the government is appealing. Our post on the H1B $100K fee has the full timeline.

Two other changes are worth knowing about:

• A proposed $103,265 fee for "all H-1B cap-subject petitions," published by DHS on 25 August 2026. USCIS says cap-subject petitions "may not be filed unless based on a valid and selected registration," and a change of employer petition for someone already counted does not need one. As written, the proposal reads as aimed at lottery petitions, but it is not final and its scope could change.
• Layoff scrutiny. An executive order of 18 September 2026 tells the agencies to consider, in any LCA or petition, whether the sponsor "engaged in layoffs within the previous year or plans future layoffs" that affect similarly situated US workers. A new employer that recently cut a team like yours may face more questions.

Risks to avoid

Starting work before the petition is filed. Portability begins on filing or the requested start date, whichever is later. Working before that is unauthorized employment, and unauthorized employment since your last admission is one of the things that disqualifies you from portability.

Resigning before the receipt notice. If the new employer's filing slips, you are on the grace period clock without a pending petition. Once the receipt is in hand, the guide to writing and timing a resignation letter on a visa covers the handover.

Treating portability as a guarantee. If the petition is denied, portability ends. You can go back to your old employer only if that approval is still valid. USCIS's archived guidance notes that an employer that notifies USCIS of your termination automatically revokes the petition approval, and then there is nothing to go back to.

Traveling while the petition is pending. The grace period ends on any departure, and USCIS's list of cases where the $100,000 payment applies includes someone who "departs the United States prior to adjudication of a change of status request." Ask your lawyer before booking any trip.

Missing the edge of your stay. The petition must be filed before your authorized stay expires. The regulation refers to status "as indicated on the Arrival-Departure Record (Form I-94)," so check that record, not the visa stamp in your passport.

Assuming a cap-exempt move works like a transfer. From a university to a company is a new lottery case, not a transfer.

Forgetting the green card side. If you have a green card case in progress, moving employers can affect it in ways the H-1B rules do not cover. USCIS's job loss guidance explains that porting an immigrant petition is a separate process with its own conditions. If your employer has already started the labor certification step, the post on PERM processing time shows how long the Department of Labor queue is running. A spouse on H-4 is affected too: H-4 EAD eligibility is tied to the H-1B worker's own status and green card case.

Fudging sponsorship answers. Applications ask whether you will need sponsorship now or in the future. A worker on H-1B moving employers needs a new petition, so the answer is yes. Saying otherwise gets found at the offer stage, because the employer is the one who files.

If you apply through software, the same rule holds. ApplyEze reuses the work authorization answers you save. When a required question is not covered by your saved answers, it still fills it rather than stopping the run, so that answer may not come from you. Fill in your saved answers, use dry run first, and read your receipts.