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L1-B vs H1-B, what would you choose if both were not lottery based?

Hi, I'm European and currently working for a company based in the Bay Area. I'll probably have to relocate there and I may be able to choose between asking for a L1-B or H1-B visa, I have been reading online about differences between the two but wanted to get some more feedback and hopefully personal experiences.

This is a very high level comparison I was able to pull up for the two visas (in bold is what I find to be better between the two visas):

H1-B L1-B
Price $4k - $6k $2k - $5k
CAP on emitted visas Yes No
Time for approval 4-6 months 4-6 weeks
Wages Requires minimum prevailing wage for the job role and location No minimum wage requirements
Duration 6 years and can be extended (eg. if GC process is in place) 5 years, no extensions
Work limitations Can work for other companies too Can only work for company sponsoring the visa
Benefits for spouse Cannot work in the US Can work in the US
*Other Employer cannot ask for repayment of visa costs Employer can ask for repayment of visa costs if the employee leaves the company before a time window (eg. 2 years)

* Read about this on a couple of threads on this sub, haven't found any hard proof.

Assuming the above is correct (please let me know if not), I have some additional questions I was not able to find answer to:

  1. Given the L1-B visa is tied to the expertise in one role in a company, would I be able to change role/team within that same company? Eg. if I'm hired as a software engineer, would I be able to switch to a data engineer position, which could be considered to be a similar job?
  2. What's the downside of not having a minimum wage with L1-B? Do I risk of getting hired with a lower salary compared to a person on my same role but on H1-B?
  3. Besides the lottery, if you were able to choose between L1-B and H1-B what would pick? I would probably go with the latter because of the freedom it gives and the minimum wage requirements, but curious to hear other thoughts too

Thanks a lot for your help

submitted by /u/damnko
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/kmi16z/l1b_vs_h1b_what_would_you_choose_if_both_were_not/
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