10 Crucial Facts Every Employer Should Know About H1B Visas

An H1B visa is a temporary working visa for professional positions, which allows foreign nationals to live and work in the U.S. for up to six years. This visa is an important tool for any employer to get the highly qualified technical expertise it needs to operate and grow its business. However, H1B visas carry with them certain obligations that employers must know and meet to comply with the law.

Crucial Fact #1 Mandatory Employer Fee

All applications for HB status (except for 2nd extension requests) must include an extra $1000 contribution to an education and retraining fund used by the government for scholarship grants and training programs. Employers, not the H1B employee, must pay this contribution. Further, employers cannot require the H1B employee to repay them in any way for the cost of this fee. Employers that are elementary and secondary schools, colleges, universities, or non-profit research institutions do not have to pay the $1000 fee.

Crucial Fact #2 Prevailing Wage

All employers must pay the H1B employee the "prevailing wage" for the position. The prevailing wage is determined by salary surveys conducted by reliable sources. Unfortunately, the Department of Labor does consider most salary surveys reliable unless they meet specific criteria. As a result, the "safe harbor" wages information would be a prevailing wage determination made by the State Employment Security Agency (SESA) in the state where the job is located. If a wage source other than SESA is used, the Department of Labor may require the employer to pay at least the wage suggested by the SESA. In addition, the employers must offer the same benefits (health, life, disability, and other insurance plans, etc.) to the H1B employee as they do other U.S. workers.

Crucial Fact #3 Employer Attestations

Government regulations require that all employers file a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the regional office of the U.S. Department of Labor before filing an H1B application. On the LCA, the employer must agree to four conditions:

It will pay the H1B worker the prevailing wage or actual wage for the job, whichever is greater

Employment of the H1B worker will not adversely affect the working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employer with the company

There is no strike or lockout in the course of a labor dispute at the place of employment

The bargaining unit representative has been publicly notified of the LCA. If there is no bargaining unit representative, the...