Monday, February 04, 2008

H-1B FAQ

If you have any questions after reading this, please join H1Bfaqs group. And go through the archives.

Fees

Refundable fee if not selected in the lottery

  • USCIS Filing Fee: $320
  • USCIS Training Fee: $1500 ($750 if less than 25 employees)
  • USCIS Fraud Prevention: $500

Non-refundable
  • Attorney fee: $830
  • Document checking: $100

Total: $2500 (without education evaluation)

Additional fee as necessary

  • Educational Evaluation fee
  • $75 - related foreign degree (CS, IT, Electronics and Computer Science, etc)
  • $250 - $350 for evaluation based on experience. Unrelated degree, but has IT experience. $250 is the norm.
  • Premium Processing - $1000
  • Evaluation will take 2 weeks. Better send it in advance.

Experience letters must have sufficient detail of skills and job duties. Experience letter that certify you as hard working, honest, decent, diligent, dignified, good looking, nice hairstyle, good gait - are all useless. Must have specific job duties and skills used.

Check for a subsequent post on experience letters.

Multiple H-1B Applications
For multiple filing of H-1B, USCIS will adjudicate with company filing what ever application is selected. If any person is selected through two companies then he will get two H-1B approvals from two different companies and he can join any company.

Master's degree requirement
For Masters degree, one should have Master's degree before filing application otherwise USCIS may deny the application even after selection.


If you have any questions after reading this, please join H1Bfaqs group. And go through the archives.

2 comments:

Idler said...

USCIS Fee Hikes Effective July 30, 2007
http://www.nafsa.org/regulatory_information.sec/regulatory_document_library.dlib/fees_forms_and_processing/uscis_fee_schedule_effective

Idler said...

OPT expires before Oct 1

* Opt for consular processing.
* Unless you have documentation that you will be in status (I-20, etc) till Oct 1.
* Perhaps, there is a way to do change of status once you get I-20 and such. Need to investigate.