** Real life after the GC **

[luckyandcurious]

Hello Friends,

My friend has some wierd thing going on with his employer. Their realationship is spoiled badly after the Green card. Her employer is theatening her that, they will cancel the GC or send the complaint to INS or somebody saying her GC was fraudulant. My friends said as far as she knows, she didn't do any fraud. So, how come employer show that she did fraud. Can you guess what kind of evidences her employer can show that this GC was fraud.

My friend said, her employer gave her hard time entire her GC process, she was harassed by her employer. She always used to get Late salary paychecks, bounced checks, wrong W2, wrong calculations, what not. There are so many such kind of mistakes from her employer.

If there will be any court case. Who will win and what things help my friend to win.

[pralay]

Originally Posted by luckyandcurious

My friend said, her employer gave her hard time entire her GC process, she was harassed by her employer. She always used to get Late salary paychecks, bounced checks, wrong W2, wrong calculations, what not. There are so many such kind of mistakes from her employer.

Exploited then, exploited now! What is she afraid of? Her employer is not Tony Soprano, I guess. If employer wants to prove that her GC is fraud, do you think her employer will be off-the-hook?

A friendly advise. Tell her to quit her current employer ASAP and find a new employer who will not blackmail her. Let her employer give threats. Barking dog does not bite. Before leaving ask her to collect all the evidence of blackmails/threats as much as possible - copies of email, document etc.

And, BTW, if employer stops salary/payments, she should give a threat mentioning that if she does not get salary on-time she is going to report to department of labor. Not paying salary on-time - that's against labor law. It's time for your friend to be little bit professional.

Originally Posted by luckyandcurious

If there will be any court case. Who will win and what things help my friend to win.

There won't be any court case, trust me. As I said before, barking dog does not bite.

[luckyandcurious]

Thank you pralay behalf of my friend.
Also, guys/gals please give some more input on this...

especially from gurus like ****, etc..

Originally Posted by pralay

Exploited then, exploited now! What is she afraid of? Her employer is not Tony Soprano, I guess. If employer wants to be prove that her GC is fraud, do you think her employer will be off-the-hook?

A friendly advise. Tell her to quit her current employer ASAP and find a new employer who will not blackmail her. Let her employer give threats. Barking dog does not bite. Before leaving ask her to collect all the evidence of blackmails/threats as much as possible - copies of email, document etc.

And, BTW, if employer stops salary/payments, she should give a threat mentioning that if she does not get salary on-time she is going to report to department of labor. Not paying salary on-time - that's against labor law. It's time for your friend to be little bit of professional.




There won't be any court case, trust me. As I said before, barking dog does not bite.

[soham13]

Hi luckyandcurious,

Sorry to hear about your friend's situation....! I have gone thru this trouble while on H1B. Even though I was finding the project on my own and giving pofits to my employers I was looted by 2 of them. I lost almost $20,000 in slalaries.

For the first employer (where he dudcted $15000 in just 4 months,saying that my health insurance was not being deducted from the date I joined him).I sent in written complaint to NJ dept. of Labor. But as I was on H1B they suggested me to go to Federal wages and hours dept.( don't remember exactly which one now). But by the time 1 year was over and I could not approch the suggested dept and I also moved to Richmond. It seems you need to report any salary issues within one year of non payement.

With 2nd employer,they did not apply my LC on time and I was loosing my chance of getting 7th year extension on H1B as there was no LC pending for 1 year or no pending 140. Somehow I managed to get a Sub. LC and applied I-140 to get 7th year extension. And I needed to QUIT them and did not get paid $5000 ( as it was per diem amount for couple of months).

Learning from the earlier experience , I hired a lawyer when there was an issue.But the Desi Lawyer charged me $300/notice to send 2 notices to the employer ( I think an intern at his office did this). And after that stopped picking up my phone. So I had really no option left. When I tried to find out about going to court it seems, we need to file the case in the county court where the company office is located. My 1st employer is in NJ and second one was in TX. So the lawyers would charge you (approx.$200+/hr + the expences for going to court.) As being on H1, I had already moved out of NJ, so I dropped the idea of following the case with 1st employer. And in case of second the amount to recover was not big enough compared to expences.

I think it's just our bad luck. We come here to USA in the hope of better life and get looted in hands of our own people. Unfortunately, both these employers were Desis. And they earned good money without spending a dollar.I paid for my H1 expences and moving. For 1st employer , he got $16/hr for 18months. Second one got $45K in one year. It's Greed of people that hurts us. And somehow there is nothing much we can do except hoping for the good....!

In case your friend's case goes to court, there are bar associations for most of the counties. They help you to talk to a lawyer free or with $20 for the first time consultation and then you can work out other things with the lawyer .

Pl. ignore this if it sounds too negative but since I have suffered , I just wanted to share....! Pl. let me know if I can be of any help.Can you Pl. send me a private message with the name of this employer, if it is ok ?


Thanks,

[luckyandcurious]

It is really sad to listen your story. Some times I feel not for collecting the dues from employer. But, to teach them the lesson by filing the lawsuit against these stupid employers.

I know many desi companies loot thier own desi people only. Some of my american friends says that "Your desi companies only exploit and cheat your own desis", that is absolutely "TRUE".

I have a question, is there any law or department which protects employee from employer if employer pays irregular salaries or late salary payments.

I know Labor department protects the employee for Minimum wages. But what about the late payments, etc..

[hipka]

One good change to H1 and green card law would be to grant H-1 for a 6 yr period without restriction that the person must be employed by the sponsor. He should be free to change employers or sit at home if he wishes. At the end of 6 yrs he must find a GC sponsor or leave the country. This would eliminate a lot of exploitation. After all how does the US benefit if H1-B workers are exploited??

[luckyandcurious]

Hi ****,

Can you please feed some info on Late Payments and Irregular salary payments from employer. What law protects employee in this case. Do we need to file complaint with Labor department or some other department. Also, it should be filed in only employer's state or any state is fine.

[hipka]

Originally Posted by ****

Wouldn't change much. The exploitation is already illegal. Most people just don't know about it or accept it as a way to get into the US. I read stories all the time about "how can I transfer the H1 without paystubs"...

The exploitation may be illegal but most people accept it as they need employer sopnsorship to stay and work in the US. If their stay and previlege to work were guranteed for the duration of H-1, several people would come forward with complaints. Presently it is not clear what would happen if you complain against your employer for non payment of wages. The employer will get penalized but whether you will be allowed time to look for another job and given permission to work for someone ready to hire you is not at all guaranteed. There is also the problem of having to search for a new job in an alien country + lack of health insurance etc. for that period and also no guarantee that the new employer will not be equally exploitative. The dice are heavily loaded against H-1B holders.

[techconsultant]

reply from a member
-----------------------


i have the same situation, my previous employer didn't pay my dues and i had to leave the company.
steps -
- i filed a civil suit against this company in the county court. if you dont have money to fight right now its ok.. you can file a case against them even after 2-3 years. this is needed as DOL will only deal with cases that are 6 months old. keep all the documents and emails as proof. this court case will take a year as the process is very slow and will cost 5000$ max and can be paid in installments. the attorney fees can be recovered if you win. talk to labor lawyers. use www.findlaw.com. initial consultation is free.

- get in touch with other ppl in the company who are going throu the same problem with the employer. team up for support and visibility.

- file a written complaint against the employer. most DESI employers are in violation of the many H1B rules.
file a department of labor complaint using form - WH-4
file a tax complaint if any using form - 3949A

file a complaint to DOJ about the employers H1B hiring process. most DESI employers only hire H1bs and that too from india

U.S. Department of Justice,
Civil Rights Division,
Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices
950 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW, Washington, DC 20530

[techconsultant]

reply from a member
-----------------------


i have the same situation, my previous employer didn't pay my dues and i had to leave the company.
steps -
- i filed a civil suit against this company in the county court. if you dont have money to fight right now its ok.. you can file a case against them even after 2-3 years. this is needed as DOL will only deal with cases that are 6 months old. keep all the documents and emails as proof. this court case will take a year as the process is very slow and will cost 5000$ max and can be paid in installments. the attorney fees can be recovered if you win. talk to labor lawyers. use www.findlaw.com. initial consultation is free.

- get in touch with other ppl in the company who are going throu the same problem with the employer. team up for support and visibility.

- file a written complaint against the employer. most DESI employers are in violation of the many H1B rules.
file a department of labor complaint using form - WH-4
file a tax complaint if any using form - 3949A

file a complaint to DOJ about the employers H1B hiring process. most DESI employers only hire H1bs and that too from india

U.S. Department of Justice,
Civil Rights Division,
Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices
950 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW, Washington, DC 20530

[Dago Red]

+ lack of health insurance

please be aware that one of the most important things you should have is health insurance ! You don't need an employer to get coverage. You can get your own policy which is - for younger people - not too expensive or you can sign up for COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act).

see http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.html