What Is an H-1B Transfer? Portability, Fees, and Eligibility

An H1B transfer is a new H1B petition filed by a different employer on your behalf, and under federal portability rules you can begin working for that employer the day the petition is properly filed — no lottery, no waiting for USCIS to decide.¹ The tradeoff is real: if the petition is ultimately denied, your authorization to work for the new employer ends that day.

How Portability Lets You Start Work Right Away

The rule that makes an H1B transfer practical is the portability provision at 8 U.S.C. § 1184(n). It permits an H1B worker to accept employment with a new employer as soon as that employer files a valid petition, even though USCIS hasn’t finished reviewing it.¹ Your authorization continues until USCIS decides. Approval means you keep working. Denial ends your authorization for that employer the same day.

Three conditions must all be true when the new petition is filed for portability to apply: you were lawfully admitted to the United States, the new petition was filed before your current authorized stay expired, and you haven’t worked without authorization since your last lawful admission.² Miss any one of them and the petition is ineligible for portability, which means you’d have to wait for approval before starting work.

Who Can Transfer and Who Can Sponsor

You’re eligible if you currently hold valid H1B status or you’re inside the 60-day grace period after termination of your previous H1B employment. You do not need your current employer’s permission or knowledge; there is no legal requirement to tell them before your new employer files. You will need to give notice eventually, of course, and the timing of that conversation is worth thinking through carefully.

On the employer side, the sponsor needs a valid Employer Identification Number, must operate a legitimate business, and must be offering a real position in a specialty occupation — one that requires at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a directly related field as a minimum for entry.³ Engineering, computer science, finance, and architecture are typical examples; a role that would accept any degree generally isn’t specialty enough.

The 60-Day Grace Period After Termination

If your previous H1B employment ended, federal regulations give you a discretionary grace period of up to 60 consecutive days, or until the end of your authorized petition validity period, whichever comes first. During that window you’re still considered to be maintaining H1B status.⁴ The clock starts the day after your last day of paid employment.

Two limits are worth knowing. You get the grace period only once per authorized petition validity period, so you can’t stack multiple 60-day windows from the same petition. And “discretionary” is a real word here: USCIS isn’t required to grant the grace period, though in practice most workers rely on it without issue.⁴

Does a Transfer Go Through the Lottery?

Usually, no. If you’re already in H1B status and moving from one private-sector employer to another, both positions are cap-subject, but you were already counted against the annual cap when you got your first H1B. No new lottery is needed.

The wrinkle is cap-exempt employment. Institutions of higher education, nonprofits affiliated with them, nonprofit research organizations, and government research organizations are cap-exempt.³ Moving into one of these employers avoids the cap regardless of where you’re coming from. Moving out of one — from a cap-exempt employer to a cap-subject one — is where trouble appears. If you’ve only ever worked for cap-exempt employers and were never counted against the cap, the new cap-subject petition would need an available cap number, which typically means going through the lottery.

Documents You and the Employer Need

Gathering paperwork early prevents delays, because a missing item can trigger a Request for Evidence that adds months.

From You

Valid passport that remains valid through the requested petition period.
I-94 Arrival/Departure Record showing your most recent lawful admission.
All prior I-797 approval notices, not just the most recent one.
Educational credentials: diploma from your highest degree and transcripts.
Updated resume reflecting current employment.
Recent pay stubs from your current or most recent H1B employer, proving you maintained valid status.

Academic documents in a language other than English need certified translations.

From the New Employer

Company name, address, and Employer Identification Number.
Job offer letter with the position, salary, and start date.
Detailed job description explaining the specialty occupation duties and the degree requirements.
A certified Labor Condition Application, Form ETA-9035, filed electronically through the Department of Labor’s FLAG System and certified before the I-129 petition is submitted to USCIS. The LCA attests that the employer will pay the required prevailing wage and meet working condition standards.⁵
An export control attestation in Part 6 of Form I-129, confirming whether a Department of Commerce or Department of State license is needed to share controlled technology with you. If a license is required, the employer must certify you won’t access that technology until it’s obtained. Getting this wrong can be grounds for revoking the petition.⁶

Filing, Fees, and Premium Processing

The employer files Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, together with the certified LCA and supporting evidence.⁷ The complete package goes to the USCIS service center designated for the employer’s location.

H1B filing fees consist of several separate components, and the total depends on the employer’s size and type:

A base filing fee, paid by all petitioners.
The ACWIA training fee, which differs based on whether the employer has more or fewer than 25 full-time employees.
A fraud prevention and detection fee, required on initial and transfer petitions.
An Asylum Program Fee of $600 for employers with more than 25 full-time equivalent employees, $300 for smaller employers, and waived for nonprofits.⁸

Fee amounts change, and newer legislation can add surcharges. Always check the current USCIS fee schedule before filing. Submit the wrong amount and USCIS rejects the whole petition; they won’t process it and won’t contact you to fix a shortfall.

An employer can request faster adjudication by filing Form I-907 for premium processing. USCIS guarantees it will take action within 15 business days, not calendar days.⁹ “Action” means an approval, denial, Request for Evidence, or notice of intent to deny, not necessarily a final answer. Effective March 1, 2026, the premium processing fee for H1B petitions on Form I-129 is $2,965.¹⁰ If USCIS misses the deadline, it refunds the premium processing fee. Without premium processing, transfers typically take several months, and processing times vary by service center.

What Happens After Filing

USCIS sends a receipt notice, Form I-797C, confirming the petition was received.¹¹ That receipt is the proof of filing that portability rests on, and it’s what lets you begin working for the new employer. Keep it safe.

During review, USCIS may issue a Request for Evidence asking for additional documentation or clarification. An RFE isn’t a denial, but the response deadline on the notice — typically 84 days for I-129 petitions — is firm. Miss it and USCIS can deny the petition as abandoned.¹² Many transfers fall apart here: the employer receives the RFE, sets it aside, and weeks vanish before anyone responds.

If approved, USCIS issues an approval notice on Form I-797.¹³ If denied, your authorization to work for the new employer ends immediately. You would then need to find another employer willing to file, return to a prior employer if that’s an option, or otherwise change status before falling out of lawful standing.

Traveling While the Petition Is Pending

International travel during a pending H1B transfer is one of the riskier moves in this process. If the petition was filed as a change of status, which is the standard approach when you’re already in the U.S., leaving the country while it’s pending may be treated as abandoning the petition. You’d then need consular processing to get a new visa stamp before re-entering.

Re-entry with a pending transfer is technically possible if you hold a valid, unexpired H1B visa stamp and can document that the new petition was filed before your prior period of stay expired. Enforcement at ports of entry is inconsistent, though. Some officers apply portability liberally; others are stricter. If your prior H1B petition has already expired and the new one hasn’t been approved, you generally cannot be admitted in H1B status. The safe course is to stay in the country until approval. If travel is unavoidable, get advice on your specific facts before booking anything.

What Happens to H4 Spouses and Children

H4 dependent status is tied to your H1B petition, so an employer change affects your family too. Your spouse and children need to file Form I-539 to extend or change their status to align with the new petition.¹⁴ USCIS recommends filing at least 45 days before current status expires.

If an H4 dependent also holds an Employment Authorization Document, matters get more delicate. The EAD is linked to the underlying H1B petition, and switching to a new employer’s petition can affect its validity or a pending renewal. Filing a new I-539 and I-765 concurrently with the H1B transfer keeps things aligned; many practitioners also keep any existing pending applications in place as a backup.

Recapturing Time Spent Outside the U.S.

H1B status is capped at a total of six years.¹ Days you spent physically outside the United States during that time don’t count against the clock, though, and you can recapture them when filing an extension or transfer.

Recapture isn’t automatic. The employer must request it in the I-129 petition and include supporting evidence: a day-by-day calculation, a trip-by-trip travel summary, passport stamps, I-94 records, and flight itineraries. USCIS counts only full 24-hour periods outside the country, and the purpose of each trip doesn’t matter. For workers approaching the six-year mark while a green card is in progress, the recaptured days can be worth weeks or months.

Extensions Past the Six-Year Cap

USCIS can extend H1B status beyond six years in certain circumstances, most commonly tied to the green card process.¹⁵ If an employer has filed a PERM labor certification or an I-140 immigrant petition on your behalf and it has been pending or approved for long enough, one-year or three-year extensions beyond the cap may be available. These can be requested through a transfer, and the new employer doesn’t have to be the one that started the green card process, though the specifics depend on how far along things are.

If you’re getting close to the six-year mark, start planning early. Running out of H1B time without an approved extension means leaving the country, and rebuilding status from abroad is far harder than extending while you’re still here.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1184 – Admission of Nonimmigrants
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 62W – What Is Portability and to Whom Does It Apply
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-1B Specialty Occupations
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Options for Nonimmigrant Workers Following Termination of Employment
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Important Foreign Labor Certification H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 Information
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Frequently Asked Questions About Part 6 of Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-129 – Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H and L Filing Fees for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How Do I Request Premium Processing
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS to Increase Premium Processing Fees
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797C, Notice of Action
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Memorandum PM-602-0040 – Change in Standard Timeframes for Applicants or Petitioners to Respond to Requests for Evidence
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797 Types and Functions
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 7.5 H-1B Specialty Occupations