I have switched jobs under AC21, and I have since gotten permanent residency.
While you can change jobs, your new employer has to both be one that wants to handle H1-Bs (and many smaller ones don't). On top of that, if you were applying for an employer-sponsored green card, like most H1-Bs want to do, then guess what? You have to get your new employer to sponsor you too, depending on the part of the process you are in. And while asking an H1-B to pay for his own visa costs is illegal, as far as I can tell, asking someone to compensate the company for legal fees trying to obtain a still pending green card does not. In my last job before the green card, I had a nice 20K anvil hanging over me if I left before green card +1. And that process took about 7 years, thanks to visa limits. So yeah, I could have changed jobs again, but it would not have been cheap for me.
And all of that, while knowing that getting laid off leads to either leaving, or staying in the US illegally for a small period of time, which is one of the few reasons the USCIS agents can find to end up denying a green card application.
So I am glad AC21 exists, but the freedom an American has and the one an H1-B visa holder have are nowhere near equivalent.
While you can change jobs, your new employer has to both be one that wants to handle H1-Bs (and many smaller ones don't). On top of that, if you were applying for an employer-sponsored green card, like most H1-Bs want to do, then guess what? You have to get your new employer to sponsor you too, depending on the part of the process you are in. And while asking an H1-B to pay for his own visa costs is illegal, as far as I can tell, asking someone to compensate the company for legal fees trying to obtain a still pending green card does not. In my last job before the green card, I had a nice 20K anvil hanging over me if I left before green card +1. And that process took about 7 years, thanks to visa limits. So yeah, I could have changed jobs again, but it would not have been cheap for me.
And all of that, while knowing that getting laid off leads to either leaving, or staying in the US illegally for a small period of time, which is one of the few reasons the USCIS agents can find to end up denying a green card application.
So I am glad AC21 exists, but the freedom an American has and the one an H1-B visa holder have are nowhere near equivalent.