h1b visa - as a company how to host?

Question

I have a small business and have been trying to fill software positions with qualified resources at "the prevailing wage". I have some foreign talent candidates that are interested. Is there a service to do this on your behalf or a recommended book to read.?

Answer 1

Since you are new to this, you should consider retaining an immigration attorney. The procedure is not rocket science, but requires some interaction with you state's Department of Labor (not to be confused with the U.S. Department of Labor) before you actually file the paperwork with the immigration.

Legal fees will probably run you about $2,000 per case (I've seen as low is $1,500 and as high as $5,000 with level of service completely uncorrelated to the price; a cheap lawyer can be as good or as bad as an expensive one); you will also have to pay a non-refundable filing fee of $1,500 per case to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. There may be other expenses, such as the cost of evaluating your prospective employee's education credentials (the law requires that H-1B workers hold at least a Bachelor's degree in the area of their proposed employment or a related area), but they are typically small compared to attorney fees and filing fees.

You will be requried to post a notice to your employees about the fact that you are hiring H-1B workers and sign an affidavit stating that you in fact posted such notice.

You should also remember that the best time to file for an H-1B is right after the beginning of the U.S. government fiscal year (October 1), so you should file in October or November. Usually, USCIS stops accepting H-1B petitions in January or February, because the annual quota for H-1B visas gets filled. If your attorney neglects to mention this at the initial interview (as some sleazy ones do), don't hire him; he is trying to charge you for putting together a petition that he knows full well will be rejected.

If you are in California, I can recommend a good attorney (knowledgeable, approachable, and reasonably priced) whom I have repeatedly used over the last few years.