will my current employer contact my new employer if i break the contact and not pay them the money?

Question

my manager is trying to give me a run around in this issue. the money that i as asked to pay is the amount that i paid for my H1 visa fee. this was supposed to be paid by the company but they asked me to pay myself after i joined the company. they should have let me know this before i joined the company and i was left with no choice at that point rather than paying from my pocket. they reimbursed the amount later but they gave it as a sign-on bonus and since i am leaving before the contract ended, they are asking to pay it back. i really dont want to pay. the amount, it is $3,600. But i am worried that if i leave without paying them, will my new employer know about this which might give them a very wrong impression on me. can my current employer contact my new employer? is this legal?

Answer 1

Your current employer can only release truthful information about you to another company if you sign a release to do a background check on you.

Legally, in the U.S. and employer is not allowed to charge someone for the visa fee, it must be paid by the employer. It is illegal for them to enter in to a contract with you for reimbursement of those fees. Check the INS/Homeland Security web site for this information and let your employer know that if they insist on reimbursement you will contact the agency and let them know they are breaking the law. Believe me, it will not be a good situation for your employer if they get in to trouble for doing that.

Answer 2

They probably won't contact your new employer, since unless you tell them, they won't know who the new employer is. But they will very possibly sue you if you signed a paper saying you'd pay it back if you quit within a certain time and don't live up to your agreement, and they'll probably win in court - then if you don't pay it, they could probably get a judgement garnishing your wages at your new company, so then they'd know. Why not just be honest and pay them the money. I understand you "really don't want to" - but legally and morally you owe it to them, and being practical it could come back to bite you on your visa.