H-1B transfer and changing employers

There is no H-1B "transfer" filing

The word "transfer" is common shorthand, but H-1B status does not move from one employer to another as a single administrative step. A new employer that wants to hire a worker who already holds H-1B status must sponsor that worker from the start of the process described in the guide to how the H-1B process works: obtain its own certified Labor Condition Application from the Department of Labor for the new position, and file its own Form I-129 petition with USCIS. The new employer is not bound by, and does not need access to, the previous employer's LCA or petition. Because the new filing is a fresh petition rather than an amendment, USCIS counts it as an initial petition for that worker at the new employer in the H-1B Employer Data Hub, even though the worker was already in H-1B status elsewhere, a detail that matters when comparing employers' initial-petition counts.

Portability: starting work before approval

A statutory provision commonly called H-1B portability allows a worker who is already in valid H-1B status, and who has not violated that status, to begin working for the new employer as soon as the new employer properly files the Form I-129 petition — without waiting for USCIS to approve it. This is narrower than it sounds: it applies to a worker moving between H-1B employers while still in status, not to a worker changing status into H-1B for the first time, and it does not apply if the worker has fallen out of status before the new petition is filed. If the new petition is later denied, the portability-based work authorization ends. Because portability lets work begin before adjudication, an approval or denial recorded later in USCIS data can reflect a petition for a worker who had already started the new job. USCIS's H-1B specialty occupations page is the starting point for the current regulatory text governing portability and other H-1B filing rules.

The numerical limit generally does not apply again

A worker who has already been counted against the annual numerical limit in a prior fiscal year is generally not counted against it again when moving to a new cap-subject employer, so the new employer's petition typically does not require a new registration and selection cycle. This is a structural feature of the statute, not a guarantee for any individual case — eligibility depends on the worker's specific H-1B history, and an attorney should confirm it before a petition is filed. Employers that are cap-exempt in the first place, covered in the guide to cap-exempt employers, do not use the registration and selection process regardless of the worker's history.

Wage and worksite terms reset with the new LCA

Because the new employer files its own LCA, the wage level, prevailing wage, occupation code and worksite that applied at the previous employer do not carry over. The new employer attests to its own wage and worksite terms for the position it is offering, certified separately by the Department of Labor through the LCA program. A worker moving employers is effectively looking at a new employer's wage and worksite practices from scratch, which is why the employer's own LCA record, not the worker's prior employer, is the relevant comparison.

What to check on a new employer's data first

Before a petition is filed, an employer's public H-1B and LCA record can answer several structural questions, even though it cannot predict the outcome of any one case. Its initial approval rate and trend, described in the guide to approval rates, show how the employer's petitions have fared with USCIS in recent fiscal years. Its wage percentile and prevailing-wage level show how its certified wages for a given occupation and area compare with the broader market, both computed on the methodology page's formulas. Its third-party placement share indicates whether the employer typically places workers at its own location or at client sites. And its PERM follow-through figure indicates how often the employer's H-1B hires go on to start a green-card case, relevant to a worker weighing a longer-term move. VisaBench's employer pages, including Microsoft and Google, present all of these figures together, and the top sponsors ranking is a starting point for comparing the largest filers by volume.

Timing considerations

Because the new petition is a separate filing with its own adjudication, the timing of a move depends on when the new employer files, whether it requests the optional premium processing service, and how the worker's existing status and any pending extensions line up with the new filing. These are case-specific questions that depend on facts an employer's public record cannot show — the record describes how an employer's petitions have fared in the aggregate, not how quickly, or whether, any single petition will be adjudicated.

This guide is general information, not legal advice; consult a licensed immigration attorney about your case, particularly regarding portability eligibility and status timing, before beginning a job search or accepting an offer while in H-1B status.