Travel Reimbursement on H1B.

[indianpro]

I work for a large American organization as a permanent full time employee. They sponsored my H1B and I recently came to US.

Air Ticket that I used to travel was paid for by me as I thought that my employer would reimburse it when I am here but now when I asked them for it, they are refusing to reimburse it and saying that I should have negotiated it at the time of job offer. I am quite surprised that such a big american company would expect me to negotiate that they would pay for my airfare.

Are they legally bound to reimburse my Air fare ? I know they are, if they lay me off but I am not sure if they have to reimburse when the bring me here. I also asked them to pay me relocation allowance so that I can rent a car for few days etc.. but they have refused that as well.

I somewhat resent coming here now..not because I am not getting the airfare but because I am loosing confidence in my employer. I left a settled life and a good job in India to come here after all.

[livliv]

They are not required to pay for it.

[murphyd]

A relocation package is always negotiated before you accept the offer. A reputable company, in most case, will provide a relocation package, without you explicitly asking for it. This way they can retain best talent irrespective of the location. As far as legality is concerned, I am not too sure, I will defer that question to other experts in this forum.

[JoeF]

No, they don't have to pay for your ticket to the US.

These things should indeed be negotiated beforehand.

[JoeF]

Relocation expenses need to be negotiated as part of the whole job offer package.