H1B not filed by employer, I wanna sue my employer!!

[ankulpoganja]

I am on visa with STEM Ext OPT expiring on 19th Feb 2014. I joined company A in Sept 2012 and while joining they promised me to file H1B for me this year. They prepared all the H1B documents for me and out of the blue they asked me to sign a contract on 29th March 2013. The employer never talked about this agreement before. And the agreement was very weird. It had one clause that stated that I have to pay $8000 if I leave the company before 6 mnths, $6000 before 1 year, $4000 before two years. And this period will start from Oct 1st 2013, eventhough I was hired in Sept 2012. This is not at all acceptable. However, I signed the agreement on 1st April 2013 and asked them to send my documents to USCIS asap. Now my employer gets greedy and asks from me $3300 which is H1B filing fees. So basically they are trying to exploit me at last moment. I asked the HR to arrange a conference call with all the higher authorities (Board of Directors, President, VP). And HR told me that he will terminate me from job today itself. Now I dont expect a single penny from them now. I want to go legal against them. I want to file a case against them. Let me know if you have been in such a situation and what action you took. And let me know if you know good lawyer. Thanks.

[JungleRule]

I am almost in the same boat. Please tell me, what to do when employer promise to apply for h1b and then later deny or dont do it?

I am on visa with STEM Ext OPT expiring on 19th Feb 2014. I joined company A in Sept 2012 and while joining they promised me to file H1B for me this year. They prepared all the H1B documents for me and out of the blue they asked me to sign a contract on 29th March 2013. The employer never talked about this agreement before. And the agreement was very weird. It had one clause that stated that I have to pay $8000 if I leave the company before 6 mnths, $6000 before 1 year, $4000 before two years. And this period will start from Oct 1st 2013, eventhough I was hired in Sept 2012. This is not at all acceptable. However, I signed the agreement on 1st April 2013 and asked them to send my documents to USCIS asap. Now my employer gets greedy and asks from me $3300 which is H1B filing fees. So basically they are trying to exploit me at last moment. I asked the HR to arrange a conference call with all the higher authorities (Board of Directors, President, VP). And HR told me that he will terminate me from job today itself. Now I dont expect a single penny from them now. I want to go legal against them. I want to file a case against them. Let me know if you have been in such a situation and what action you took. And let me know if you know good lawyer. Thanks.

[ihelp07]

H1B not filed by employer, I wanna sue my employer!!

If you have any proof that he demanded for H1b fees to can sue him. It's illegal .

[kabkaba]

Consult an attorney who has experience in immigration and labor law. They are in no way required to file H1B for you, but they also cannot demand payment for filing fees from you. There also may be cause for wrongful termination.

[electricfern]

Now my employer gets greedy and asks from me $3300 which is H1B filing fees. So basically they are trying to exploit me at last moment. I asked the HR to arrange a conference call with all the higher authorities (Board of Directors, President, VP).

This is illegal. Contact Feds (through an attorney) and put everything on the papers. Meanwhile, find a new job, if possible and ask them to file H1B for you. If you have to pay whatever amount stated in the agreement, pay that amount by check or something. Feds will certainly beat the crap out of them.

Feds visited me one day at home. DW sent them to my workplace. When I got a call from security, I was like, I know I didn't do anything that Feds should pay me a visit. After a minute of talk, they informed me that its not about me but about my employer. Somebody complained that the employer asked the person to pay up the H1B fees and airfare to travel to the US. I don't know about the airfare part but the employer should be paying H1B fees. I had to put that in writing the employer paid everything and thats about it.

I suggest, really go after them. AFAIK, some system is put in place to avoid exactly the same thing. Feds also know that without H1B, it will be pretty difficult to keep US flying high.

[ankulpoganja]

Thank you everyone for your response. I would like to add that my employer promised me for H1B verbally on phone and he also asked from me H1B fees on phone. I don't have written proof for both the things. However, I have an email proof that he asked me to sign a contract on day before he was supposed to send my docs to USCIS. What do you think how strong my case can be? Thank You.