Dear All,

I had a h1b visa stamped on my passport since October 2005.
I traveled to the US only in October 2007.
Visa got expired in may 2008 but I renewed it at the same time and got renewal for 3 more years i.e. till 2011.

I know that the maximum number of years a person can stay in the US on h1b visa is 6 years.

Now my question is
Can I get an extension on my current visa beyond 2011 for two more years since the first 2 years of my existing visa were not utilized meaning I was not in US from the period October 2005 to October 2007?
Or my h1 visa expires in 2011 even though then I would have actually stayed in the US only for 4 years?

Thanks in advance.

H-1B counts term of your employment. As long as you have payroll issued by the US employer, it doesn't matter where you are. By the way, what happened? Why didn't you get L-1 instead of H-1, what did your attorney say?