FAQ: Successor in interest, effect of location change on green card; EB-5 investment-based green card loan, collateral, ownership; How soon can I leave the employer after green card approval; DUI/DWI visa revocation; EB-2 for nurses; What should employees do when employer convicted of visa fraud.
Other: I-94 expiring- passport duration; Children born within a few days after green card approval; H-1B amendment - change of location or project; H-1B cap exemption; Travel during STEM OPT extension; Opening a non-profit while on H-1; Physician (FMG) using H-4 EAD; H-4 extension; etc.
Considering that the economy is not doing that good and sometimes projects get over and consultants go on "bench" without any clients kinda situation, this is something not that uncommon. Related to this, as being on a H1B requires me to maintain the LCA salary as mentioned on my W2, would switching to EAD with my sponsoring employer help with getting away from this restriction?
Does that also mean that if I don't get paid by my employer for a certain period and I am on an EAD, there is no issue with my GC/status at all as there is no H1B.
Just trying to find out what the possible advantages would be at this time with EAD.
There are two situations to analyze here: being benched and getting paid a lower salary. Both of them have problematic implications for employers and employees.
Here is what concerns me. As far as I know, it has never been done so far, but the possible consequences of being benched are that the I-485 can be denied and (POSSIBLY, but there are strong arguments against it) I-140 could be revoked if already approved. If I-140 is not approved, USCIS could easily deny the I-140.
Some of our employees' Green cards
have been filed. There projects have ended. They are working on H-1 but possess EAD and have 140 approved and 485 pending more than 180 days.
Quote: (1) If we revoke their H-1, are we still required to pay full wages if our clients say they do not currently have a project for our employees?
Ans. You are not required to pay "bench salaries" for employees whose H-1 are revoked (remember you must inform CIS and offer employee a one-way ticket home). But we then have exposure to the questions, "do you still have a "permanent" job for them?" If the answer is no, then their GC processing can be interrupted unless they use AC21 portability.
Whats the relevance or importance of having continuous pay stubs (How much gap is permissible if Not significant?) in the processing of Green card of an H1B holder.
Continued payments are required by law for H-1 holder, unless they come under some very limited exceptions for leave for employee's personal reasons. Not paying, exposes the employer to investigation and penalties and may place the employee out of status.
In the green card context, non-payment can lead to problems with demonstrating ability to pay wages.
For both H-1 and GC, nonpayment can lead to an assumption that no genuine job exists. That could lead to cancellation of one or both processes, except for situations where AC21 portability is involved.
I am Mr. Jones, the employer. The employee, Mr. Smith, is no longer employed with us because of company's budget issue. However, we may hire him in the near future if circumstance changes.
My question:
Q1. Do we need to withdraw PERM LC for him that was submitted 2009?
Q2. Question from the employee, Mr. Smith:
If Mr. Smith filed an immigration benefit (e.g. visa, petition, change of status), does he need to answer YES / NO to the following question: "Has an immigrant petition ever been filed for you?" Basically: does submitting PERM/LC mean filing an immigrant petition? This question is often asked in application.
A1. I do not know of any law that requires an employer to withdraw a PERM application if an employee leaves or gets laid off, but the employer still retains a good faith intention to hire them back. When we first filed the PERM application, we filed it in good faith, asserting to the USDOL under penalty of perjury that:
You have enough funds available to pay the wage or salary offered the alien and you will be able to place the alien on the payroll on or before the date of the alien’s proposed entrance into the United States.
My wife is on H1B and now she is 7th month pregnant. If she takes leave on non-payment, will she be in H1B status or out of status?
As long as the leave of absence is reasonable and customary (or required by medical necessity), she should be considered in status.
How many months gap is permisible for H-1 and also in GC process if person is on H-1 ?
I mean to say supposse one H-1 holder lost his job and if he got another job after 02 months ( Gap of 02 months ) then his H-1 and GC process will be effected ? His last co. is supporting by keeping her I-140 as such ( no revock )
(Condition: Person has H-1 and his I-140 was also aproved in last co. but due to some reason she left job and would like to join another co. on 3rd month, say after 02 months and would like to file H-1 in this new company )
A gap of even one day (unless excused by USCIS) puts a person out of status and is not permitted. When you leave a sponsoring employer, it certainly calls into question the continuity of existence the green card job'
Immigration Law In The Workplace
Rajiv S. Khanna
(Published in The Practical Lawyer, Dec. 2009
A publication of American Law Institute-American Bar Association)
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reminds the public that the H-1C nonimmigrant category expires on Dec. 21, 2009.
Effective December 21, 2009, the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Reauthorization Act will sunset. The Nursing Relief for Disadvantage Areas Act (NRDAA) established the H-1C Program in 1999 to reduce the shortage of qualified nurses in health professional shortage areas. The Program was reauthorized until December 20, 2009 under the Nursing Relief for Disadvantage Areas Reauthorization Act of 2005 which became effective in December 20, 2006.
I am here on an H1B and completed my BSC Nursing as well as obtained my state licence. What is the best way to proceed to get a job/visa in the USA.
Start with Optional Practical Training.
I already have a USA LPN license, was just wondering if its possible to get E3 visa to work in USA, I am an Australian citizen. What are the requirements?
As far as I remember, most nurses jobs do not qualify for H-1/E-3 type visas because a US Bachelor's degree is not required for the jobs. If you can find a job where a Bach. degree is the minimum requirement, you can be eligible for E3 or H-1B.
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1. I don't have a work order or client letter to support my H1B extension which is expiring on 2nd June. Is it legally not allowed to file for H1B extension without this or to avoid RFE one need to support extension with this.
Our employee XYZ has arrived in the US. However, it appears that because of the job market in the US, he is going to return home to his old job. I know you said they are allowed to return back to USA at a later date if they choose to work for us down the road. But my question is how long may he stay without getting paid until he must return home? I know you sent me information about benching, stating:
Q. What is the law regarding the benching of H-1 holding employees?
A. The law does NOT permit benching without full salary payment by the employer. The only exception is that when an employer first hires an employee on H-1B they are allowed an initial period of 30 or 60 days during which the employee does not have to be paid while on bench.
i. If the employee is currently in USA and adjusts status or transfers from one employer to another within USA - the bench-without-pay period is 60 days from the date of approval of the petition by INS.
ii. If the employee is entering USA from abroad, the period is 30 days from the date of entry into USA.
If I'm interpreting this correctly, we must pay him no later than day 30 of his arrival here in the USA?
There are a couple of issues I want to clarify. The period of payment begins on the earlier of the two events: when the employee presents himself/herself for the job or 30/60 days. DOL considers it to be irrefutable evidence of having reported when a consulting company starts "marketing" the resume (Note also that to bring an employee in without a project has been elevated by this administration to be an indictable offense, which I think is unlikely to stand up in courts).
The attached document explains the criteria.
1. Is it advisable or compulsory to get the prevailing wage determination from the states or Online Wage Library is enough at the time of taking LCA? Because most of the time we are taking the LCAs for the job titles like: Software Engineer, Programmer Analyst and System Analyst for which the wage determination available in the online wage library.
Ans. OES wages can be used as long as the correct job category and job level are used. Applying for prevailing wages from the govt. is time consuming, but does have the benefit of being almost beyond question in case of an audit.
USCIS now wants consulting companies to provide tax information on their clients. This is gross over-reaching in my view. Here is an excerpt from an RFE we received last week:
1. Are we OK in keeping an H1B worker without work as long as we pay him during the project break too - at the LCA wage level.
Ans. You must pay your H-1 workers the legal wage. This is the higher of the prevailing wage or the actual wage. Actual wage is defined as that which you pay other similar employees in the same geographical location. So, as long as you pay the legal wage, there is no problem.
Dear Rajiv, we are small business firm with few h1b workers. I have few questions that I would like to get your advise:
a) Do we need to file a separate labor petition whenever a h1b worker moves to an different project location?
Quote:
1. If an employee is on a H1 they cannot have a 10% pay cut unless their H1 was amended and refiled.
What if an employer is indicted on multiple counts and he is cleared of all other charges but he pleads to a conspiracy charge with home detention for a few months as his punishment. How does this effect pending cases at his business?
That depends upon whether or not the conspiracy was in fact in relation to the pending cases. For example, if the fraud/conspiracy involved non-payment of H-1 employees, that should have no affect on pending green card cases.
If a new start-up IT consulting company wants to transfer H1 of a prospective employee who is already on H1 and working for his current H1 sponsor, what are the issues and feasibility for such a transfer?
How can such a start-up IT consulting company go about hiring AC21 eligible folks on EAD? May this is the safest route in the beginning until the company gets more employees and grows revenue?
Will the AOS of the prospective employee be safe if he is the only employee of this company in the beginning. Of course the company wants to expand in the future but has to start somewhere.
H-1 by Start-up Companies