H1B & Green Card
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H-1B & Green Card Costs Explained (2024)

The cost of an H-1B and employment-based green card is spread across multiple stages and years. Most fees are paid by the employer, but employees often pay out of pocket for personal immigration attorneys and certain petitions like EB-2 NIW.

H-1B Filing Fees (2024)

Green Card Priority Date Wait Times (2024)

The biggest variable in US immigration is the priority date backlog — how long you wait once your I-140 is approved. This depends entirely on your country of birth and visa category. For workers born in India, the EB-2 and EB-3 backlogs are measured in decades.

What Indian Workers Should Know

• EB-1A (Extraordinary Ability) has a shorter backlog (~3–6 years) than EB-2/EB-3. If you have publications, patents, awards, or press coverage, self-petitioning EB-1A may be faster.
• EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) lets highly educated professionals self-petition without employer sponsorship or PERM. The backlog is the same as EB-2, but it removes employer dependency.
• O-1 Visa is an alternative to H-1B for workers with extraordinary ability. No lottery, no cap, renewable indefinitely — but requires strong evidence of achievements.
• AC21 portability lets you change employers after your I-485 has been pending for 180+ days — crucial for navigating long waits.

What Happens to Your H-1B If You're Laid Off

Layoffs are one of the most stressful events for an H-1B holder because status and employment are directly linked. Unlike a green card holder or citizen, losing your job also puts your legal right to remain in the US on the clock.

The 60-Day Grace Period

Since 2017, USCIS regulations give terminated H-1B workers a grace period of up to 60 days (or until the end of the authorized validity period, whichever is shorter) to either find a new sponsoring employer, change to another visa status, or depart the US. This grace period is not automatic paid time — it's purely an immigration status buffer. It also cannot be used to work; you are not authorized to work for anyone during the grace period unless a new H-1B petition has been filed and approved, or you've filed a change of status.

Transferring Your H-1B to a New Employer

H-1B "transfer" is really just a new H-1B petition (I-129) filed by a new employer — there is no cap-exemption issue since you already hold H-1B status, and no need to wait for the annual lottery. The new employer pays the same base filing fee ($730) and, if applicable, the ACWIA and fraud prevention fees again, since these are tied to the petitioning employer, not the worker. Premium processing ($2,805) is worth strongly considering here, since it compresses adjudication to 15 business days versus the standard 2–6 months — critical when the 60-day grace period clock is running. You can legally begin working for the new employer as soon as the new I-129 is filed (not approved), under H-1B portability rules, provided you were previously in valid H-1B status.

Impact on a Pending Green Card

If your PERM or I-140 was filed by the employer who laid you off, an unapproved PERM application typically dies with the job loss — you'd need a new employer willing to restart the process. An approved I-140, however, generally remains valid even if the sponsoring employer withdraws it or goes out of business, and the priority date it established can normally be retained and reused with a new employer's future I-140 filing. If your I-485 (adjustment of status) has already been pending 180+ days, AC21 portability allows you to move to a same-or-similar job at a new employer without restarting the green card process from scratch.