Your approval notice arrived. Here are the 5 steps to take immediately, and the mistakes that cost people their status.
H-1B approval means USCIS has accepted your employer's I-129 petition and authorized you to work in a specialty occupation. The approval does not automatically grant US entry, you still need a valid H-1B visa stamp in your passport to board a flight to the US (unless you are already inside the US on a valid status). According to USCIS, the approval notice (Form I-797) is proof of the approved petition, not entry authorization.
This distinction matters: thousands of H-1B holders are stranded abroad every year because they assume the I-797 alone is sufficient. It is not. You need both the I-797A (the petition approval with I-94 attached) and a valid visa stamp.
The I-797A or I-797B arrives by mail within 1–2 weeks of USCIS approving your petition. Check that your name, employer, job title, and start date match exactly. Any discrepancy must be corrected immediately via an I-290B motion.
Visit cbp.dhs.gov/i94 and print your latest I-94. It should show H-1B status with an expiry matching your I-797. Discrepancies between your I-94 and I-797 have caused unexpected status violations.
If you are outside the US or travel internationally, you need an H-1B visa stamp in your passport from a US consulate. The I-797 alone does not allow entry, you need both the stamp and I-797A.
Cap-subject H-1Bs cannot begin before October 1 (or the approved start date on your I-797). Working even one day early is unauthorized employment, which permanently bars many green card categories.
Maintain a personal file: I-797, LCA, offer letter, pay stubs, and I-94. You will need these for visa stamping, travel, H-1B transfers, and green card filings.
The I-797A includes a tear-off I-94 at the bottom and is issued when you are inside the US during approval. The I-797B has no I-94 and is issued when you are outside the US or your petition is consular notification only. If you received an I-797B and are inside the US, contact your attorney immediately, this may indicate a processing error.
| Form | Has I-94? | Issued When? | Can Enter US? |
|---|---|---|---|
| I-797A | Yes | Applicant inside US | With valid visa stamp |
| I-797B | No | Applicant outside US / consular | Need stamp + I-797B |
If your H-1B extension is pending when your current I-797 expires, you are protected under the AC21 240-day rule. You can continue working for the same employer for up to 240 days while USCIS processes the extension. This is a critical protection, but it only applies to same-employer extensions, not H-1B transfers to a new employer.
The 240-day period starts the day after your I-797 expires. Document this carefully: if USCIS takes more than 240 days to decide, you must stop working even if the extension is still pending.
A delayed start date is common, your employer may need to complete onboarding, equipment provisioning, or project staffing. This is legally fine as long as you are on the employer's payroll by the approved start date on the I-797. DOL requires that H-1B workers are paid the offered wage beginning on the start date in the LCA, whether or not they are productively employed. Benching, not paying an H-1B worker during a slow period, is a DOL violation.
If the employer withdraws the petition before you start, your status reverts to whatever it was before (e.g., F-1, or unlawfully present if you let a prior status expire). You have a 60-day grace period after a bona fide termination to find a new sponsor. See our H-1B maintenance of status guide for details.
Consider starting your green card process immediately, priority dates for India and China can take 10+ years. Also explore premium processing for any future amendments or extensions to cut USCIS wait times to 15 business days.
Sumit Patel
SMIEEE · FBCS · FIETE | 16+ years data engineering | 30+ peer-reviewed papers
Built H1BVisaJobs.com on 10 GB+ of DOL LCA data.