H-1B Transfer and Prevailing Wage Info?

[olimits7a]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

Hi,

My lead programmer is based out of Egypt and I've been working with him since 2012. He would like to come to the USA with his wife and work in the USA.

1. I'm sponsoring him under my LLC and I see I have to go through the LCA process where I have to pay my developer the "prevailing wage" for his current position; which is a "Senior Web Developer".

I currently pay my developer hourly; which doesn't come out to a large yearly salary, since the cost of living in Egypt is much lower than it is in the USA. Based on his current "Senior Web Developer" position, I know the salary for these type of positions in the USA can easily range from $75K - $110K /year.

Will this be an issue for the H-1B petition? Would I have to list him at a "Junior Developer" position, which gets paid a lot less? By doing this, would this effect him in anyway when he goes to look for a "full-time" job or can he still show on his resume that he's a "Senior Web Developer"?

2. I was looking into how the "H-1B transfer" works, if he has an approved H-1B and is currently working "part-time" for my company when his new employer files this "H-1B transfer" does it have to go through the 65,000 cap again? Also, can the new employer file this "H-1B transfer" anytime they want or does it have to be filed on April 1st again?

Once my developer goes through this "H-1B transfer" process, can he still work "part-time" for me? I read online that this "H-1B transfer" is like submitting a new petition and my developer would then have a "concurrent H-1B" to work with 2 employers but I'm not sure if this is accurate.

Thank you!

 

[FlyingRon]

You probably want to employ the assistance of an attorney that has done these things before. Just because you WANT to bring a foreign national in doesn't mean you'll be issued an H-1B visas for him. There's more than just paying the prevailing wage. There are cap issues and you'll also need to show you attempted to hire an "already legal to work in the US" person first.

What his H-1B shows has nothing to do with the lies on his resume.

There's no such thing as a H-1B transfer, really. The new employer will need to apply for a new H-1B visa for him. There are steps however that can be skipped the second time around, however. For example, once he's already cleared the cap requirements, he doesn't need to do so again.

Yes, he can work for multiple employers on his H-1B. Each job needs to meet the H-1B requirements and the employers must comply with the H1B obligations.

 

[olimits7a]

Thank you for the quick reply!

Yes, I'm actually in the process of finding an immigration lawyer to help with this but I'm just trying to further educate myself on this process.

Oh ok, I see...so if he already has an approved H1B visa with my company when this new employer applies for a new H1B visa he doesn't have to worry about the cap or winning the lottery again; right? Can this new employer apply for this new H1B visa whenever they want or does it have to still be submitted on April 1st?

How do I show that I attempted to hire an "already legal to work in the US" person for this H1B process?

The reason why the "prevailing wage" is concerning me is because I pay him under $30K /year this is one of the main reasons I looked for international developers because their cost of living is so much lower this way I can afford to pay a "senior web developer" overseas. So as long as I can select a different job title that pays a lot lower salary (e.g. junior developer) without this effecting his ability to find a new job at his current job title, I guess this would work for the H1B process.

Thank you, again!

 

[FlyingRon]

Yes, once he has an approved H-1B, another employer, without having to worry about cap, can apply for him. In fact, he is allowed, subject to the other restrictions to work for that employer while the application is pending.

You can define the job how you want, but you must pay the prevailing wage in your area for the job you've defined to the USCIS. What they want you to be doing is hiring people who have skills you can't find in the US workpool and pay them a rate not less than what you'd pay a US worker. The purpose of H-1B is specifically to NOT allow you to bring in foreigners and pay them substandard wages just because it's cheaper than hiring US workers. The "title" means little. It's the actual description of the job duties that determines.