Employer agreement/bond validity?

R

rsp125

New Member
Hi all,

I worked with my company more than 3 years. They applied my LC and I-140(approval pending) now at the last movement, company sent one agreement which stating that I have to stay with company 1 year after getting my I-485 approved(working period).
And other clause are if I leave company or company leave me (misconduct/insubordination/substandard performance/excessive absence/breach of agreement) I have to pay $25000 as liquidated damages.

And they are not forcing but also saying that if you want to apply as concurrent before this 31st December you signed this agreement and than we will submit the application.

My question is this kind of bonds/agreement between employee and employer is valid or not? Everything in the agreement they made in favor or company nothing from employee advantage. If I break this kind of agreement than what could be affect?

Please help me with your feed back/ opinions to decide my next step.

Thanks in advance
:confused:
 
ask them - can you pay from your pocket for the processing in order to avoid agreement
or
ask them how they arrived to this figure 25000? If they ask you to pay actual figure that make sense. But 25000 is huge amount.
If still they ask you to sign I think you don't have choice. Also all this steps which I am asking you to do should be through mail. Show in the mail that you are signing the agreement forcefully. I think that should be sufficient for you to break the lease. Remember most of time judge don't support big corporation.
 
Employers do these tricks in order to intimidate you. They don't expect to actually collect on this if you jump ship.

> My question is this kind of bonds/agreement between
> employee and employer is valid or not? Everything in

As a rule of thumb, if you put your signature on something while you are not inebriated: it's valid. There might be some provisions in labor and immigration law that make it unenforcable, but I am not aware of any.

> the agreement they made in favor or company nothing
> from employee advantage. If I break this kind of
> agreement than what could be affect?

They could sue you and you would be stuck with hiring an attorney to fight the claim. Chances are, you would be able to either weasle out after paying 5-10k in attorneys and court expenses, or you would be able to settle with them somewhere in the middle between nothing and 25k.
If you don't fight it, they can get a judgement entered against you and either garner your wages at the new employer or put a lien on your house or car. Otoh, if you leave the state, the expenses to pursue a judgement in another state are considerable, they might choose to abandon it at that point.

Oh, one other thing. They can revoke the I140 and provide information to CIS that you intended to leave them at the time you were filing your I485. (This could be hardcopies of your postings here, emails, phone conversations etc. You are aware that communication using company equipment is not priviledged. They can do with it what they want.)

(25k seems to be a magical number that employers use if they sue former employees.)

The best idea would probably be to get a consultation with a lawyer familiar with employment law. They are not as expensive as the immigration shysters and probably more competent in this particular question. (Don't ask your company paid lawyer!!)
 
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