Employer Wants to Recover H1b Filing Fee from Me
Hi,
I work for an Indian IT firm (relatively small firm). Last Month I resigned on 1st April 2015 (the day when H1B filing starts). Although i gave information in the morning itself, till the news reached visa department they had already filed H1B on my name.
Now while lottery result is still awaited, I am being told that if selected, I have to pay for all visa application expenses (roughly 4000 USD). To be clear, I have not signed any agreement while submitting the documents to visa cell that if I resign I have to pay any money.
Can anybody please advice what should be my course of action and can my employer recover any money from me for the same. In my case, there are no expenses except the H1B filing fee and attorney charges.
Re: Employer Wants to Recover H1b Filing Fee from Me
Re: Employer Wants to Recover H1b Filing Fee from Me
thanks for your response
Reason i asked in this forum is because what i could gather from various other threads is that "employer cannot recover h1B visa fees from the employee".
I just want information on this part being valid for all cases like mine where my company is probably going to withdraw the application when the lottery result comes out.
Re: Employer Wants to Recover H1b Filing Fee from Me
If you're not in the US, they aren't going to recover anything under US law. What they recover from you in India is outside the scope of this forum. If you are talking about what happens after you get selected and come to work in the US, then you are right, you are not responsible for those fees.
Re: Employer Wants to Recover H1b Filing Fee from Me
Whatever legal action they take in India, if they are seeking recovery of fees that they are prohibited from demanding by U.S. law you can report their violation to the Department of Labor.
Re: Employer Wants to Recover H1b Filing Fee from Me
Some costs for H-1B filing can be legally paid by the employee. What you agreed to pay or reimburse your prospective employer should be in your contract. While you say you did not sign anything when submitting your documents, you may have done something which authorized the employer to file on your behalf. Since you were an employee of the company already, it may be in your employment documents far predating the decision to file for your H-1B.
And expecting to be able to cancel on the date the petitions could be accepted was really stupid; the petition was prepared long before and, if done by an attorney's office, in with many others and unlikely to be retrievable on such short notice.
Withdrawing the petition after approval still incurs all of the filing costs - and withdrawal costs too.