H1 B Expense Repayment to Ex Employer

[hstill]

Background:

I recently quit my Full Time job with an employer for whom I worked for 1 year and 9 months. As soon as I quit the job for a better opportunity, the HR reminded me about a Repayment Agreement that I had signed at the time of joining which essentially stated that I would owe the company 100% expenses incurred as part of the H1B filing if I quit within 1 year and 50% expenses if I quit within 2 years. However, at the time of quitting the job I was already holding a Green Card which I got through my family within 6 months of starting the job but, went ahead and worked for 1 year and 2 months even after becoming a permanent resident. I have just two questions in this regard.

Questions:

1. Isn't a H1B employer supposed to bear all the costs for a H1B employee, if so why do they need to take it back if I worked for a longer term.

2. At the time of resigning my employer was no longer my H1 B sponsor, so do I still need to pay them for something that they no longer are sponsoring?

3. The requested amount is more than the actual fee of the H1 B filing itself as it includes the attorney fee as well, and does not consider the fact that I was made to pay the additional fee for expediting the application to premium processing. I am not liable for half of the H1 B application fee ONLY?

This is something I never heard happening to anyone so I thought I would share with you all. I would appreciate any detailed response as to what my corrective action should be.

Thanks,

Hstill.

[JoeF]

There are some costs that the employer has to pay and can't get reimbursed for.

The rules are laid out in 20 CFR 655.731: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2008/aprqtr/20cfr655.731.htm