To Amend, or Not to Amend?

Ramos_Maria
Maria del Carmen Ramos

Under the Immigrant and Nationality Act (“INA”), the hiring of a foreign worker must not adversely affect the wages or working conditions of similarly situated U.S. workers. The INA was also designed to protect foreign workers from being exploited. To make sure that does not happen, the INA requires employers to, among other things, pay foreign workers here on H1-B visas at least the local prevailing wage. Continue reading “To Amend, or Not to Amend?”

A Cautionary Tale for H-1B Employers

Maria del Carmen Ramos
Maria del Carmen Ramos

Quite often employers ask, “If it doesn’t work out, can we recover all the money we have spent on the H-1B process from the employee?” The short is answer to this repeatedly asked question is no. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations are clear that the employer must pay the filing fees and may not allow the worker to pay it directly, by deduction from wages or in any other fashion.  DOL regulations say that the H-1B costs and fees are employer business expenses and exclude those fees and costs from the list of “authorized deductions.” (Read more about deductions for an H-1B worker’s pay.) Continue reading “A Cautionary Tale for H-1B Employers”