My current H1B (from a university) will be expired on August 1st. Now I got a job offer from a local industrial company, which is willing to sponsor a new H1B. The immigration lawyer of the company told me that, as long as the company file the application for me, I should be able to work for the company immediately and legally.
-The lawyer is partially right, but you need to stop working on August 1 or on the date your H1 transfer is approved (whichever is earlier) if the H1 transfer is approved before Oct. 1 because your I-94 will expire on August 1 and your new H1 is cap-limited. Then, your can continue to work on Oct. 1 if your H1 transfer is approved on/before that day. Another thing is that if your H1 transfer is approved between August 2 and September 22, you have to leave US because you are out of status and have no valid I-94. Then, you can get the H1 visa to come back only after September 22, in advance up to 10 days before your new cap-limited H1 is effective. So, you may not want to work for the new company until Oct.1 and file the H1 transfer just one week to 10 days so that you can legally stay in US during the H1 pending which may cover the gap between August 2 and September 22. There are still lot of H1 quotes available due to bad economy, so you do not need to worry about the H1 quote.
However, that sounds confusing to me because the H1B of industry has a cap of 65,000/year. If the quota of year 2011 is totally used out, then I can only start to work on October 1, 2011 legally, which is the starting date of H1B of 2012. Am I right? In addition, if the lawyer is right, then after I submit the H1B application, what is the my exact visa status between August 1 and October 1? Is it stilled counted as H1?
