Employers often ask if they are responsible for all the fees associated with an H-1B petition. The short answer is: yes, but it’s not that simple. Learn more in this video by FordMurray founding partner Russell Ford, part of our video series exploring frequently asked questions during the H-1B process.
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Russell Ford, founding partner of FordMurray, a National Immigration Law firm based in Portland, Maine, answering some common questions employers have in the immigration process. Today we're going to focus on a question that comes up quite frequently in the H-1B process, which is:
Who is responsible for paying for the H-1B?
An H-1B has many components in terms of fees. When lawyers are involved, you have lawyer fees, with every H-1B, you have government filing fees, those filing fees comprise of an I-29 filing fee, and ACQWIA fee, the anti-fraud fee, and in some cases, a premium processing fee. And then of course, with all H-1B's, there are various costs that could come in education, evaluations, translations, etc.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of the H-1B - the Department of Labor has been very clear in that the H-1B is a cost of doing business, meaning for an employer who has gone the extra mile and decided to sponsor an employee. The Department of Labor feels like with that sponsorship, the employer should be responsible for those fees, lawyer fees, government filing fees, and those additional costs. Now, generally, what that means for employers is that $2,460 filing fees and an H-1B process, whatever those lawyer fees are.
But what about premium processing? Premium processing has been less clear. The government hasn't included this in the cost of doing business analysis, premium processing, which is an expensive $2,500 fee has been seen as an additional expense and unnecessary at times expense. And therefore that expense has not been lumped into the overall H-1B process. So in the grand scheme of things to summarize this for you employers, legal fees, regular filing fees, those $2,460 filing fees, definitely the employer responsibility, the additional $2,500 Premium processing fee, that's negotiable and can be passed on to the employee.
I know this is all confusing. I know there's a lot involved in H-1B's, you can check out our website www.fordmurraylaw.com we have an H-1B guide for download there that you can get more questions answered or we offer complimentary consultations to employers. Feel free to reach out and ask us those questions and we'll try to get them answered for you. Thanks. Have a great day.
