Lin & Valdez, L.L.P.

$1,000.00 EMPLOYER SPONSHIP FEE MUST BE PAID FOR THE FIRST H-1 EXTENSION

Almost a year ago, a client retained our office in a desperate situation. She just received a rejection from INS to her H-1 extension application because her attorney refused to pay the $1,000.00 fee to the INS despite the request and notice of INS. The attorney wrote his opinion to INS arguing that because it was for extension, not for a new application, the fee should not be required. Fatal to the case, the attorney only insisted his position, did not asked the INS to give him chance to pay the fee if the INS did not agree with his argument.

Many people have similar misimpression regarding the fee. The INS, however, did not sympathize such a misunderstanding and did not give the client another chance for argument. The case was rejected.

This client was in a very dangerous situation then because the extension application was filed close to the expiration of the previous H-1 and the rejection was issued after the expiration of previous approved period. With the rejection, she was out of status. The INS had zero tolerance policy and she was in danger of not being able to return to her status. Within days after we were retained, we filed a brand new application for the same position of the same employer. We laid out all the errors and mis-happenings. Most importantly, we quoted the INS memorandum about case-by-case examination for out of status H-1 processing. Within weeks, we received approval notice and our client was put back to the right track.

The lesson from this case is:

(1) $1,000.00 fee from employer is still required for the first extension of H-1 status. If the employee stays with the same employer long enough for a second extension of the status, the fee will not be required then.

(2) Not all cases are treated same by the immigration officers. With good argument and legal reasoning, even desperate situation could be saved.

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