Employer has deducted total H1 fees from salary... is this legal?

S

samsarala

New Member
Hi Gurus,

I transferred my H1 from company A to Company B & worked as a consultant for Company B at the clients homeoffice for 6 months. I quit working for the company after the end of the project & now Company B has deducted all the H1 expenses from my final salary. I have been reading up on this issue & am very confused. Can the company B do this? Is it legally allowed? If not, what course of action can I take against them legally.

Would really appreciate some help.. they cut $3000 dollars from my salary.

help!!
 
You quit comp A why did comp B deducted the H1 fees? Both the companies owners are related?



samsarala said:
Hi Gurus,

I transferred my H1 from company A to Company B & worked as a consultant for Company B at the clients homeoffice for 6 months. I quit working for the company after the end of the project & now Company B has deducted all the H1 expenses from my final salary. I have been reading up on this issue & am very confused. Can the company B do this? Is it legally allowed? If not, what course of action can I take against them legally.

Would really appreciate some help.. they cut $3000 dollars from my salary.

help!!
Click to expand...
 
samsarala said:
Hi Gurus,

I transferred my H1 from company A to Company B & worked as a consultant for Company B at the clients homeoffice for 6 months. I quit working for the company after the end of the project & now Company B has deducted all the H1 expenses from my final salary. I have been reading up on this issue & am very confused. Can the company B do this? Is it legally allowed? If not, what course of action can I take against them legally.

Would really appreciate some help.. they cut $3000 dollars from my salary.

help!!
Click to expand...

Did they tell you that the H1b transfer is 3000$?.......is it so much?
 
It depends

Samsarala,

Since you worked with Company B for six months and quit them, they might have deducted that money. It all depends on how they have deducted decides it is legal or not. Also do you have any Agreement with them that if you quit early, you will have to pay for it or something like that?

GC_Europe,

New H1 or H1 Transfer cost is same. Company with more than 25 employess must pay $2190 to USCIS and may be the rest is Attorney's cost and etc.
 
Ask for flight charges and not H1 expense

Employer can deduct H1 expenses.
You should have had an agreement with employer on how much he can deduct and in the absence of that the best way is to negotiate.

Law also stipulate that employer needs to pay the flight charges in case of lay off. Can you some how prove that you were laid off rather than you left. In that case you may file a complaint asking you to be paid the flight charges.
 
To Cbalas

cbalas said:
Samsarala,

Since you worked with Company B for six months and quit them, they might have deducted that money. It all depends on how they have deducted decides it is legal or not. Also do you have any Agreement with them that if you quit early, you will have to pay for it or something like that?

GC_Europe,

New H1 or H1 Transfer cost is same. Company with more than 25 employess must pay $2190 to USCIS and may be the rest is Attorney's cost and etc.
Click to expand...

Cbalas....can you tell me please....if company has less than 25 employees....how much is the fee for H1b transfer? I would also like to know( if you are familiar with the fee) how much is the fee for H1b extension?

Thank you in advance!
 
Employer has not paid final months salary + expenses

Hi all,

Firstly thanks for the great response. However I am seeking legal representation against the employer as he intends to pay me only 15 days + expenses & wants to cut above $4000 dollars from the final salary. His reason for doing this is that they have not made enough money from me(his words not mine). I am really under a lot of stress at this time as I am looking for a new job. The only option that seems available to me is to sue the employer. Can anyone help me here? Does anyone know of any similar cases? Would be really, really grateful. Please people I need help!
 
Fees

Samsarala,

Do you currently have an H1B from some other employer? If you don't have better do not get in fight with him. If you have a proper status with some other employer, then before going to sue him call him and talk in good way and negotiate. Tell him that if he does not satisfy you then you might have to go to Labor Department or to any attorney. Usually this works with them well. Remember one thing Lawsuit is not easy. It is very very expensive and very long process. You may end up paying lot of money to attorney's and finally may not get any benefit out of it. At the end you are the one to take a decision. I am just trying to be helpful.


GC_Europe

If Employer is filing H1B Petition for an employee for the First time (does not matter H1B transfer or Consular Processing or Change of Status), fee is $2190 if company has more than 25 employees and fee is $1690 if company has less than or equal to 25 employees.

For first H1B Extension (ie., employer is filing for the second time for the employee), fee is $1690 if company has more than 25 employees and fee is $1190 if company has less than or equal to 25 employees.

For all further H1B Extensions (ie., employer is filing for the third time for the employee or more), fee is $190 (it does not matter the company size).

In all these above cases, there will be attorney fee you may have to pay. (Usually attorney fees can vary from $500 to $2000 depending on the law firm).

NOTE: If the case is filed in Premium Processing (any of the above cases), flat $1000 fee has to be paid to USCIS.
 
Thank you cbalas

Thank you so much cbalas.

You wrote:"
If Employer is filing H1B Petition for an employee for the First time (does not matter H1B transfer or Consular Processing or Change of Status), fee is $2190 if company has more than 25 employees and fee is $1690 if company has less than or equal to 25 employees"......

......if I file for H1b transfer and extension at the same time.....will I have to pay the exact fee 1690$ for the both of them? OR do I have to pay: 1690$ for one and 1690$ for the other one?

Thank you for your time.
 
samsarala said:
Hi Gurus,

I transferred my H1 from company A to Company B & worked as a consultant for Company B at the clients homeoffice for 6 months. I quit working for the company after the end of the project & now Company B has deducted all the H1 expenses from my final salary. I have been reading up on this issue & am very confused. Can the company B do this? Is it legally allowed? If not, what course of action can I take against them legally.

Would really appreciate some help.. they cut $3000 dollars from my salary.

help!!
Click to expand...

Samsarala,
Even if you have an agreement with the employer to pay H1B fees, the employer cannot deduct it from your salary. That would be illegal (not sure if it depends on the state - but here in Ohio it is illegal). The way they can claim the money from you is by asking you to give them a check. If you refuse, they can refer you to a collection agency - but they will have to prove that the agreement existed in the first place to the collection agency. If the agreement was oral in nature (which is a legal agreement and is enforcable), they may have a tough time proving it unless there was more than one person in the room when the agreement was made.

However, think before you leap. From your post, it is not clear if you have quit Company B already or you just joined Company B. If you have already quit Company B, all you need to do is go to the local Dept. of Labor with proof that the money was withheld from you paycheck. They are responsible for enforcing labor laws and usually that will do the trick. If you are still with Company B, you can still do as above, but if they terminate your employment, you will have to engage in a legal fight to prove that they fired you because you reported them. If you lose, then you are out of status from the day they fired you and you will be in all kinds of legal problems. In this scenario (that you are still with Company B), I would advise you to move to different company and then approach the local DOL.
 
columbus_dude said:
Samsarala,
Even if you have an agreement with the employer to pay H1B fees, the employer cannot deduct it from your salary. That would be illegal (not sure if it depends on the state - but here in Ohio it is illegal). The way they can claim the money from you is by asking you to give them a check. If you refuse, they can refer you to a collection agency - but they will have to prove that the agreement existed in the first place to the collection agency. If the agreement was oral in nature (which is a legal agreement and is enforcable), they may have a tough time proving it unless there was more than one person in the room when the agreement was made.

However, think before you leap. From your post, it is not clear if you have quit Company B already or you just joined Company B. If you have already quit Company B, all you need to do is go to the local Dept. of Labor with proof that the money was withheld from you paycheck. They are responsible for enforcing labor laws and usually that will do the trick. If you are still with Company B, you can still do as above, but if they terminate your employment, you will have to engage in a legal fight to prove that they fired you because you reported them. If you lose, then you are out of status from the day they fired you and you will be in all kinds of legal problems. In this scenario (that you are still with Company B), I would advise you to move to different company and then approach the local DOL.
Click to expand...
I have been reading through this Post!
Firstly let me make myself very clear... I am not a company owner or H1 sponsorer... like a lot of us, I am on H1 myself...
From what little information Sarala has provided...to me... it seems to be a case of someone trying to extract as much dough from the employer as possible...
I have seen a number of similar cases in my 5 yr H1 life.
While I know some some employers are really cheats... 90% are really good guys with the same backgrounds as you or I. (After all their Bread and Butter depends upon us H1 consultants!)

The H1 guy works for the employer, sees no future here, gets a better job, quits, has some arguments over pay with employer, and decides to take advantage... I have seen this repeatedly. The employer if he has not been careful in the accounts and paperwork gets screwed.

here's my observation.
Firstly, It Seems that this person Sarala has a habit of jumping ship.
If any of us have any idea, how little the margins, bench time and ROI on this is, we would know that 6 months is really little time for the employer to make any money.

Secondly, He/She is not providing any concrete facts ().. just asking the steps how to go in for a legal action... Please provide more information, if you really are a genuine case.

and Thirdly, he/she is befuddling... earlie she says 3000 and then next email s/he says 4000.00... Daal mai kuchch kalaa hai..

just MHO..

But, If his/her case is genuine, i wish this person all the luck..
But nobody should take emotional/mental stress for $3K.
 
To GC Europe

When you are filing for Transfer and Extension together, then you pay only one $1690 (as long as the company size is <= 25).
 
EB2INDPD2005 said:
I have seen a number of similar cases in my 5 yr H1 life.
While I know some some employers are really cheats... 90% are really good guys with the same backgrounds as you or I. (After all their Bread and Butter depends upon us H1 consultants!)
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily agree with you on this. You probably have worked with a good employer, and may not have any bad experience, but that doesn't justify you from giving a statistics on what percentage are good and what percentage are cheats. I know a lot of people who went through unnecessary hard times because of cheat employers. Whether you know it or not, a lot of recruiter even takes money from consultants to file for their H1. Is that a right thing to do? Many of the employees are probably not as smart to get direct job from big US companies, and so they turn to small recruiting companies for project based jobs, but is it right on employers' part to take this opportunity and cheat with employees? I know a lot of ppl who didn't even get properly paid while they were on OPT (like i know few guys who got their first paycheck almost 2/3 months after starting their job/project, and eventually never got paid for atleast on month) and they remain silent because they were on the process of getting H1, or didin't want to lose their job. I think this is a scam and something has to be done to stop this scam.


EB2INDPD2005 said:
Firstly, It Seems that this person Sarala has a habit of jumping ship.
If any of us have any idea, how little the margins, bench time and ROI on this is, we would know that 6 months is really little time for the employer to make any money.
Click to expand...

Does the contract say that if the employer cannot make enough money from its employee then it will cut all the expenses it had to bear while processing H1B?

EB2INDPD2005 said:
But, If his/her case is genuine, i wish this person all the luck..
But nobody should take emotional/mental stress for $3K.
Click to expand...

same goes for the employers .. don't risk your business for $3k .. this USA, not ....
 
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