H-1B promotions and remote moves: check before you change

Describe what will actually change

Compare current and proposed duties, work location, pay, reporting arrangements and intended start date. A new title may leave the work largely unchanged; the same title may hide a different job.

For remote work, include the physical address where the employee plans to work and how often they will use each location. “Remote approved” is a business decision, but it does not give counsel enough information to assess the immigration requirements.

Put the referral into the promotion or relocation request itself. Ask managers and employees to identify a proposed change before choosing a final start date. A process that relies on someone remembering to send a separate email is easy to miss during a busy transition.

Ask for an answer the manager can act on

H-1B rules require an amended or new petition for material employment changes. The Labor Condition Application, or LCA, is the employer’s filing with DOL covering employment commitments, including the wage and worksite. A move requiring a corresponding LCA is treated as material; the regulation also defines situations where an amendment is not required. The filing and start-date requirements depend on the facts.

Ask counsel to give a conclusion for the proposed arrangement, with any conditions that must be completed first. Avoid a message that simply says “immigration reviewed” while leaving the manager to guess when the change can begin.

Check pay and worksite notice separately

The H-1B wage requirement is generally the higher of the applicable actual wage and prevailing wage. DOL’s notice rule also addresses the place of employment. A salary increase alone does not answer the worksite or notice questions.

Route the wage and notice tasks with the petition review, then record who confirms completion. That keeps an approval in one system from being mistaken for clearance of every immigration step.

Work through a move before it becomes urgent

Consider an employee who wants to move from Boston to a home office in Austin while taking on supervisory duties. In this hypothetical, HR sends both changes to counsel together, along with the planned date. Counsel can assess the job and location as one proposed arrangement.

The manager can then plan the transition around the confirmed requirements, and the employee can make arrangements using an accurate timeline. This example does not mean every promotion or remote move needs the same filing or waiting period.

Close the loop with the employee and the records

Tell the employee what has been cleared, what is still pending and who will confirm the effective date. If a date changes, notify the manager and payroll as well as the employee.

After implementation, reconcile the approved duties, address and compensation across the HR and immigration records. A simple check at this point makes the next extension easier to prepare and helps the team find changes that never reached the case file.

For a periodic program review, look at how often changes reach the immigration team after they take effect and which handoff was missed. Use that information to fix the referral process. Keep the employee-level legal decision with the qualified reviewer; a dashboard count cannot make that decision.