If you have an approved H1B, you can take a year off by resigning. I don&#x27;t know of any employer who would you give you a sabbatical; citizen or not. You can use your remaining H1B time with the same or any other employer. As I see it, this is the law of the land, take it or leave it; complaining is not an option IMO.<p>Also, I don&#x27;t see how you can start something on your own (excluding freelancing) if you&#x27;re taking considerable time off; maybe I&#x27;m wrong. You cannot just take time off when you feel like it, a competitor is most certainly going to eat your lunch.<p>To me, this is a lame argument that &quot;if I get my gc I can start something on my own&quot;. Really? Totally anecdotal and bay area specific, but the ratio of recent gc holders starting a new venture (note: new venture, not an existing venture) to number of people getting their gc is tending to 0 (I&#x27;m exaggerating but it&#x27;s a pretty low number). Chances are, this person has spent a lot of time in an established company waiting for his&#x2F;her gc, bought a house (therefore enslaved by a mortgage), possibly have had kids, and lost most of the technical and any entrepreneurial skills required to compete in a cut throat environment. I do not see such a person taking a risk, even after getting a gc. Will expediting handing gc to applicants change this ratio? Who knows? It&#x27;s a moot point.<p>Again, this is totally anecdotal, but I see a considerable difference between me (I work in a startup) vs a lot of my friends who don&#x27;t. I&#x27;m not saying I&#x27;m superior than them; but I see that they just don&#x27;t realize what&#x27;s required to start&#x2F;run a company. It&#x27;s no piece of cake.