I recently got a job in the US. My new employer X will be applying for an H1B visa for me. They are applying for an expedited visa and are looking at a start date two months from now.
My current employer Y requires a notice of 2 months. That is, I need to inform them 2 months before that I am planning to leave the company. Given that an H1B visa can be denied, I am thinking of giving notice at Y only after I have an approved H1B visa. This is because if I give notice before receiving the visa and if by chance, the visa gets denied, then I will have lost my current job at X also! Since the H1B visa will take some time to get approved, I will then provide notice to Y and join X after at least 2 months after that. Thus, I need to delay the start date by around a month or two.
However, Y does not seem to be too happy about delaying the start date. I've explained the situation to them and told them that if I give notice before the visa gets approved and if my visa is denied, I will be out of a job. But they are saying that their lawyers are the ones who decide the start dates based on the estimated visa process and (I feel) that they are avoiding a late start.
What should I do in this situation to join X while avoiding being out of a job?